
Copyright N°_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



WHEN GOD COMES 
DOWN TO EARTH 



WHEN GOD COMES 
DOWN TO EARTH 

or 

Epochal Crises, Past and Future 

By 

REV. GRANT STROH 



INTRODUCTION 



REV. JAMES M. GRAY, D. D. 



Chicago 

The Bible Institute Colportage Association 

826 North La Salle Street 



I 



»$ 



Copyright, 1914, by 

The Bible Institute Colportage Association 

of Chicago 



LC Control Number 



tmp96 027351 

FEB -6 1914 



©CI.A861878 



3 



To the Good Wife 

Whose Sympathy and Helpfulness 

Have Made Possible 

the Writing of the 

Following Pages 



CONTENTS 

Page 

A. A Preview of the Epochal Crises - 13 

B. The Crises Already Past - 27 

I. The Edenic Crisis 29 

II. The Flood Crisis 41 

III. The Babel Crisis - 53 

IV. The Egypt Crisis - 67 
V. The Crisis of the Cross - - 85 

C. The Premieeennial Crisis - - 101 

I. The Approaching Epochal Crisis - 103 

II. The Wrath of Satan - - 119 

III. The Wrath of the Lamb - - 133 

IV. The World-wide Extent of the Pre- 

millennial Crisis - - - 151 
V. The Brevity of the Premillennial 

Crisis ----- 165 

VI. Mercy in the Midst of Wrath - 183 

D. The Postmieeenniae Crisis - 197 



INTRODUCTION 

I had just finished the perusal of "Social Environ- 
ment and Moral Progress," by Dr. Alfred Russel Wal- 
lace, when my friend, Grant Stroh, honored me with 
the request to write an introduction for his book. Some 
of my younger readers may not know that Dr. Wallace 
was distinguished as the co-discoverer of "Evolution" 
with Charles Darwin, and is justly entitled to be named 
with the greatest scientific investigators of the past 
fifty years or more. It is this circumstance that gives 
such weighty meaning to the awful indictment in his 
book against the "civilization" of the times in which 
we live, and in which he says that "the whole system 
of society is rotten from top to bottom, and the social 
environment is the worst the world has ever seen." 
All this in the face of our great boasting about progress, 
and in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for 1900 
years ! He has a remedy for it also — Eugenics, if you 
please. Nothing else than the principle of natural se- 
lection, "the survival of the fittest" applied to the mar- 
riage relation. "It is my firm conviction," he declares, 
"that when we have cleansed the Augean Stable of our 
present social organization, and have made such ar- 
rangements that all shall contribute their share either 
of physical or mental labor and that every one shall 
obtain the full and equal reward for his work, the future 
progress of the race will be rendered certain by the 
9 



10 INTRODUCTION 

fuller development of its higher nature acted on by a 
special form of selection which will then come into 
play." 

Well said, Dr. Wallace! Every one believes that. 
But tell us, please, who will cleanse the Augean Stable, 
and make these "arrangements" of which you speak, 
and what will be their character ? You say that man's 
power to utilize the forces of nature has advanced to an 
extent surpassing all the "centuries of recorded his- 
tory," and also that "the result of this vast economic 
revolution has been almost wholly evil." Whence then 
will arise this renovating rejuvenating power? Who 
will put a stop to evil or change it into good ? 

Where the man of science ends, the man of faith 
begins. Read Grant Stroh when you are done with 
Alfred Russel Wallace. He is a Presbyterian minister 
of ripe culture, an experienced educator, and above all 
a devout student of the Bible for many years, who 
knows what he says and whereof he affirms. God has 
come down to this earth in times past, and is coming 
again, personally and visibly, to judge men and nations, 
to right wrongs, and to vindicate His Name. As our 
author says, "Whenever Satan gets control of the situa- 
tion there is nothing else to be done." But mercifully, 
God forewarns men of these coming crises that they 
may escape the doom ; and the purpose of this book is 
to convey that warning at the present time, and "by 
all means save some." May God give it a wide read- 
ing and a rich blessing for His Name's sake. 

James M. Gray. 
The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. 



PREFACE 

THE author hereby gratefully acknowledges his 
indebtedness to the many interpreters of the 
Scriptures, from whom he has received help, 
but he has not deemed it best to burden the reader with 
appeals to human authorities. In the absorbing study 
of Eschatology our sole dependence must be the Word 
itself. 

But I wish in particular to express my deep grati- 
tude to the writer of the Introduction, the Rev. James 
M. Gray, D. D., who was the first teacher to awaken 
me to the value of the synthetic study of the Bible. 
Analytical study is necessary, but the larger view of the 
Bible as a whole, of books and segments, of historical 
periods and dispensations, should precede the more de- 
tailed study, just as the study of a landscape as a whole 
should precede the detailed examination of separate 
groves and fields, hills and streams. 

Whatever of freshness and value may characterize 
the studies herewith humbly sent forth, is due to the 
gradual illumination of truth to the mind of the author 
as he has patiently compared scripture with scripture. 
They are a growth rather than a creation. 

The epochal crises are the culminations of preceding 
centuries. No single treatment of them is able to com- 
pass the sweep of their contents. If other Bible students 
11 



12 PREFACE 

find new and fuller lessons in the study of these crises, 
we shall rejoice with them. God's Word as a whole, 
and in nearly every portion, is infinite in its fullness, 
and every angle of vision reveals new wonders which 
both awe and inspire us. 

The author's appeal is solely to the Scriptures them- 
selves, and he asks only that the studies be pursued 
with an open-mindedness to the witness of the truth. 
They are prophetical studies with a historical back- 
ground. The unfulfilled events of future crises are in- 
terpreted in the light of similar events in preceding 
crises which have passed into history and have been 
handed down to us for our instruction and guidance. 
Thus the argument from the past to the future is fully 
warranted. Indeed we have no other safe guide. 

All of the Bible references are to the American Re- 
vision, because in most instances it gives the most 
accurate translations. 

Grant Stroh. 



A Preview of the Epochal 
Crises 



13 



A PREVIEW OF THE EPOCHAL CRISES 



1. General Survey of Conditions. 

2. Epochal Crises Precipitated by Moral Condi- 

tions. 

3. Each Crisis Signalized by the Descent of God 

to the Earth. 

4. Periods of Divine Judgment. 

5. God Mercifully Forewarns Men. 

6. The Crises Exhibit God's Grace and Mercy. 

7. The Prominent Part Played by Satan. 

8. The Epochal Crises Are Racial in Character. 

9. The Brevity of Each Crisis Period. 
10. Summary. 



14 



A PREVIEW OF THE 
EPOCHAL CRISES 

WITHOUT a clearly defined knowledge of 
God's plans for the world we are at sea 
without chart or compass. Nor can mod- 
ern science or philosophy place in our hands the golden 
key that will unlock the mysteries of the Divine will. 
Here we may not hazard a guess nor jump blindly 
at conclusions. Only as God has deigned to reveal 
His will can we know what tomorrow may bring 
either of glory or of gloom. 

Much of our modern Biblical scholarship has con- 
cerned itself with non-essentials — questions of textual 
and literary criticism and of human authorship. These 
are important, but non-essential. They have sacrificed 
life to mere form. Curious and sometimes irreverent 
study of the Word has sapped its vitality. In some 
quarters the merely intellectual study of the Bible has 
quite obscured the necessity of spiritual enlightenment 
and discernment. 

There is a microscopic study of words and phrases 
that is extremely profitable. But as the miner may 
become so absorbed in prospecting and in digging 
holes that his soul is seldom enrapt with the glories 
of the mountains themselves, so may students of the 
Bible become so absorbed in details that they do not 
even glimpse the immensity and grandeur of God's 
plans as a whole. Visions of God's plans for the 
15 





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A PREVIEW OF THE EPOCHAL CRISES 1 7 

race never enrapture their souls as these revealed plans 
sweep majestically onward to the final crises of history. 
This telescopic study of the Bible is quite as interest- 
ing and important as the microscopic study. 

God's plan of redemption embraces all history. But 
redemption involves not alone the soul. A physical 
as well as a spiritual redemption is also necessary and 
certain. The curse of sin affected not only man, but 
the whole creation (Rom. 8:20-22). Neither did the 
Divine plan of redemption culminate in the Cross. 
The Cross was necessary, but it was only one step in 
the redemptive processes of the ages. Nor was it the 
final step. Further acts and interventions of God 
are needed to complete the world's redemption and 
establish His kingdom upon the earth. 

God's plan of redemption has been marked by a 
twofold method — first, by repeatedly permitting man 
largely to work out his own salvation, or attempting 
so to do, and, secondly, by sometimes suddenly and 
miraculously intervening in the affairs of men to eradi- 
cate evil and to enthrone the right. These two methods 
have regularly alternated with each other and have 
dominated the course of human history. They unfold 
God's will in the past and reveal it for the future. 
When age-long sin ripens and brings forth its fruit, 
and when it becomes necessary for God to miraculously 
check and divert the course of history, then we have 
the great epochal crises of history. 



18 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 
Epochal Crises Precipitated by Moral Conditions 

These crises of history are precipitated because of 
deplorable moral conditions. The entrance of sin into 
the Garden in Eden demanded the execution of the 
punishment which God had said would follow. An 
acute crisis had come and could not be postponed. 
Likewise when God looked down from heaven and 
saw the awfulness and the irremediableness of the 
moral condition of the antediluvians, another crisis had 
come and God must again directly intervene in the af- 
fairs of men. Similarly, we shall see each of the great 
epochal crises to be precipitated by deplorable and in- 
sufferable moral conditions which grip society and 
throttle its best aspirations. Whenever Satan gets con- 
trol of the situation there is but one thing to be done. 
God must come down and exercise His right of in- 
tervention. His will is and must be supreme. 

God Descends to the Earth 

Each of these crisis periods is further signalised by 
the personal descent of God to the earth. God walked 
in the Garden and called to Adam. Centuries later 
God repeatedly talked with Noah. When the Babelites 
boastfully rebelled against God, He said: "Come, LET 
us go down, and there confound their language." 
When the slave-cry of the Israelites in Egypt reached 
heaven, God suddenly appeared to Moses in the wilder- 
ness and said, "I am come down to deliver them out 
of the hand of the Egyptians." 



A PREVIEW OF THE EPOCHAL CRISES 19 

"I am come down From heaven," was the startling 
announcement of Jesus to His enemies and doubting 
disciples. It was because of His claim to be "the 
living bread which came down out oE heaven," 
coupled with the necessity of eating this bread, that 
perplexed and angered the Jews and repelled many 
would-be followers. Yet John could afterwards refer 
to this first coming of Christ, and say in simple majesty, 
"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us 
.... and no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that 
descended out oe heaven, even the Son of man, who 

is in heaven He that cometh from above is 

above all." 

But we are looking forward to another coming down 
of God to the earth when the world is in anguish by 
reason of the woes of the Premillennial crisis. Two 
distinct stages mark this personal descent of God to 
the earth. The first is when "the Lord himseee 
shaee descend Erom heaven, with a shout, with the 
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God," in 
order to gather to Himself in the air both the dead and 
the living saints. The second stage will be that de- 
scribed in the Revelation, when the heavens shall be 
opened and He that rideth upon the white horse of vic- 
tory shall in righteousness judge and make war, and 
smite the nations and rule them with a rod of iron. 
At that time "the kingdom of the world shall become 
the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he 
shall reign forever and ever." 

Special space in this brief preview is devoted to these 



20 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

personal descents of God to the earth not only because 
they are common to all of these crises, but because 
they are the key to these crises.- These descents of 
God to the earth are necessitated by the acute condi- 
tions in society, and also explain the unparalleled 
events of these crises. Ordinarily God holds His 
hands off, permitting men to solve, if they can, their 
own problems of sin and government. God starts 
each new dispensation aright and personally intervenes 
only when men prove themselves unequal to the task 
of self-government. But when the down grade of the 
race threatens its utter destruction, then God descends 
to save His own and to punish the wicked. 

Periods of Divine Judgment 

These crucial periods of history, where the great 
dispensations touch and tangle, are always periods of 
Divine judgment. The Edenic crisis was marked by 
its fearsome sentences upon the man and the woman, 
upon the serpent and the earth. The devastation of the 
Flood was the most signal of all the judgments that 
are past. But the dispersion of the Babelites and the 
awful plagues upon the Egyptians bear further testi- 
mony tb the punitive character of these epochal crises. 
They will be surpassed in severity only by the sweep- 
ing judgments of the two future crises. 

God Mercifully Forewarns Men 

Because these crisis periods partake so largely of 
severity and doom God lias mercifully forewarned 



A PREVIEW OF THE EPOCHAL CRISES 21 

men of their coming. With possibly a single excep- 
tion (the Babel judgment) the people of each dispen- 
sation, or the leading actors, have been told what would 
befall men in case they refused to obey God. And 
this in ample time to escape the coming doom. Adam 
and Eve were not ignorant of impending judgment 
if they should disbelieve and disobey God. It was 
fully revealed to Noah that God would destroy men 
from the face of the earth. The building of the Ark 
and the preaching of Noah afforded men a long time 
in which they might have come to repentance. The 
Egyptians need not have suffered the Plagues, but 
Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to yield to 
the demands of God. During the most recent epochal 
crisis Christ warned the Jews what would happen to 
their city and nation because of their rejection of 
Him. Likewise the awful judgments of the approach- 
ing epochal crisis, which shall afflict the whole world, 
God has faithfully portrayed in the Revelation which 
He gave to Jesus Christ, who sent and signified it 
by an angel unto His servant John. 

Exhibit God's Grace and Mercy 

Another characteristic of these epochal periods, one 
that is in striking contrast with the judgments of God, 
is the softer colors of the pictures ; for they are all 
aglow with exhibitions of His grace and mercy. The 
God of vengeance is still the God of love. Two ex- 
amples from the past will illustrate. The Flood judg- 
ment came and swept away the ungodly from the earth., 



22 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

but in the years preceding God was calling sinners to 
repentance, and meanwhile prepared the Ark for the 
saving of righteous Noah and his household. Also 
during the plagues upon Egypt God preserved His 
own people and at the last gave them a wonderful 
deliverance. And with reference to the future "day 
of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment 
of God," there will be eternal life for "them that by 
patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and 
incorruption" (Rom. 2:5-7). Even though "wrath 
and indignation, tribulation and anguish" shall come 
upon every soul that worketh evil, there will also come 
"glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh 
good" (Rom. 2:8-10). Thus we who face the transi- 
tion from the Gospel Age to the Millennial Age may 
rest in the assurance that God has promised to de- 
liver His people from the dreadful day of His wrath. 
Having this hope for ourselves it remains for us to 
warn others and -to help them to escape. 

The Prominent Part Played by Satan 

One of the most marked and sinister characteristics 
of these outstanding periods is the prominent part 
played by Satan. Usually he appears in the fore- 
ground, though in several instances he reveals him- 
self only in the general character of the play or in the 
cast of his puppet players. With but a single ex- 
ception (the Book of Job), Satan comes into clear 
view upon the stage of history only in these convulsive 
epochs. His first appearance was in the Garden in 



A PREVIEW OF THE EPOCHAL CRISES 23 

Eden as the instigator of sin and the enemy of man, 
and his final appearance will be in the last great epoch, 
at which time the doom pronounced upon him by 
God in Eden will culminate in his being cast into the 
Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:10). It is intensely interest- 
ing to see the prominent part Satan plays in each of 
these great dramas of history. 

Epochal Crises Are Racial 

These convulsive periods of history are not national, 
but racial. However local the events in themselves 
they are race-wide in their intent. The entrance of 
sin into the Garden in Eden, and the judgments which 
followed, greviously afflicted the entire race. Whether 
the Flood was universal or not its effect upon the 
entire race was the same. The judgment upon the 
builders of Babel alone accounts for the confusion of 
tongues and the early dispersion of peoples and na- 
tions. And the purpose of the call of Abraham was 
distinctly announced to include blessing upon "all 
the families of the earth." The fourth crisis had to 
do chiefly with the Israelites and the Egyptians, but 
the new order of things had in view the preservation 
of the true religion and the re-establishment of God's 
government in all the earth. Clearer still is the world- 
view of the epoch signalized by the Cross, by which 
Christ would "draw all men" unto Himself. More 
general still will be the world-wide judgments of that 
future crisis which we now seem to be approaching, 
in which will occur "the hour of trial, That hour 



24 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

WHICH IS TO COME UPON THE WHOLE WORLD TO TRY 
THEM THAT DWELL UPON THE EARTH." It Will be 

apparent when we consider both the Premillennial and 
the Postmillennial crises that they too are world-wide in 
their extent. 

The Brevity of Each Crisis Period 

The time element in each of these convulsive periods 
is relatively short. The importance of this fact can 
hardly be overestimated. The Edenic crisis appears 
upon the scene suddenly and disappears abruptly. 
Temptation, sin, expulsion from the Garden — such is 
its brief history. And although the succeeding crises 
are longer, yet in comparison with the intervening dis- 
pensations they are short indeed. This is one of the 
most significant characteristics to remember. Not 
recognizing the brevity of these acute crisis periods, 
many interpreters have erred in extending the ap- 
proaching crisis over centuries instead of over only 
a few short years. But, as we shall see, both the 
character of the events and the language used in de- 
scribing them demand brevity of transpiration. It 
concerns us to know that the Premillennial crisis will 
be sharp and acute, like all of the preceding epochal 
crises. 

Summary 

Thus at the points where the great dispensations 
meet and overlap we deal with the most vital portions 
of history. The most important portions of the Bible 
describe these transitional scenes. Here we behold 



A PREVIEW OF THE EPOCHAL CRISES 25 

the massive upheavals of history. The great events 
of the intervening dispensations may be important, 
but they dwindle into the insignificance of foothills 
in comparison with rugged, precipitous, and super- 
natural events of these epochal crises. 

During these convulsive crises occur the most un- 
usual and catastrophal events of history. In them cul- 
minates the struggle between the good and the evil 
of each preceding dispensation; in them the natural 
course of history is diverted into new and better chan- 
nels; in them God personally descends and intervenes 
to overthrow the wrong and to save his own people 
who become the holy seed of a new dispensation. Pos- 
sessing the common characteristics which we thus have 
previewed, we readily see the importance of a special 
study of them. Since prophecy is simply unfulfilled 
history a knowledge of these common traits enables 
us better to understand and to interpret the events of 
the two great epochal crisis that are still iri the future. 



B 

The Crises Already Past 



I 

The Edenic Crisis 



29 



THE EDENIC CRISIS 



1. The Brevity of the Account. 

2. Precipitated by the Entrance of Sin. 

3. God in the Garden. 

4. A Judgment Period. 

5. The Swiftness of Divine Vengeance. 

6. Mercy in the Midst of Judgment. 

7. Satan 'Not At Once Destroyed. 

8. Man Without Excuse. 

9. Arguing From the Past to the Future. 



30 



THE EDENIC 
CRISIS 

THE First Epochal crisis had to do with the end 
of the first, or Edenic Dispensation, and the 
beginning of the second, or Adamic Dispensa- 
tion. We have this period only in barest outline. Yet 
the brief account contains the leading characteristics 
that are common to all of the succeeding similar 
periods. It is these common features of the periods 
that are past which enable us to recognize the two 
epochs that are still future, i. e., those contained in the 
Book of Revelation. 

Precipitated by the Entrance of Sin 

We have no means of knowing how long Adam 
was alone in the Garden, nor how long both Adam 
and Eve were there prior to the Temptation and Fall. 
But the entrance of sin marked the beginning of the 
end of Edenic innocence and bliss. The result of the 
choice of evil instead of good, of self-will instead of 
God's will, of rebellion instead of obedience, was the 
revelation of a Divine plan of redemption which should 
eventually demonstrate to all creation that God's will 
is the wisest and best for all. 

God in the Garden 

It may seem trivial to emphasize the presence of 
31 



32 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

God in Eden ; but the simple fact that Eden was upon 
the earth makes that presence significant. It is im- 
portant that the fact of God's descending to the earth 
in each epochal crisis be grasped at once. Heaven is 
God's throne, His dwelling-place. Therefore the occa- 
sion must be unusual and urgent that brings God to 
the earth. The entrance of sin into the world was 
one of those rare and urgent occasions. That day 
of disaster did not close before God was personally 
upon the scene to thwart the most serious consequences 
of sin and to punish the participants. 

Jehovah God walked in the Garden in the cool of 
the day. Adam, conscience-stricken, tries to explain 
why he is in hiding. "Hast thou eaten of the tree, 
whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat ?" 
Such is the condemning inquiry which opened the way 
for the sentence of doom and the promise of final 
victory. But what I here wish to stress is the sig- 
nificant fact that Jehovah God walked and talked in 
the Garden when the Edenic crisis came, and that God 
came down from heaven to do this thing. 

A Judgment Period 

First of all, the sin that compelled a change in God's 
dealings with man and introduced a new dispensation 
must be punished. Judgment swiftly descended upon 
each of the actors in the awful drama. Both they and 
their descendants must know that the scene of sin is 
also the sphere of wrath. This is true to the end, 



THE EDENIC CRISIS 33 

and is manifest in each epochal period. The judg- 
ments of God are not all hermetically sealed until the 
life after death. As we shall see later the Great Day 
of God's Wrath is not for the dead only, but also 
for the living. It is to purge the earth, not hell. 

The first consequence of sin (an indirect judgment) 
was the sense and the shame of nakedness (Gen. 3 7). 
Innocency gave place to self-consciousness. Adam and 
Eve hastily manufactured a flimsy covering for their 
bodies out of fig-leaves in the vain attempt to hide 
their guilty consciences. But no man-made scheme can 
cover sin. Though so frequently attempted there is 
yet the dread fear of facing God, and the lurking de- 
sire to hide one's self from His presence (v. 10). Sin 
induces shame and cowardice. Remorse is its chiefest 
penalty. But the sinner cannot hide from the pres- 
ence of God. One of the terrors of the Great Day 
of His Wrath will be the beholding of the "face of 
him that sitteth upon the throne" (Rev. 6:16). The 
instinct of Adam and Eve to hide themselves is the 
instinct of every one who is conscious of his sin, yet 
who has no covering but some futile device of his own. 

The actors in the first great drama of sin experienced 
the direct judgments of God. Some were immediate, 
others remote ; but all were real and far-reaching. For 
the woman there was in store special pangs and pains 
and humiliation (Gen. 3:16). Hers the first sin, and 
hers the chiefest suffering. But hers also the chiefest 
triumph, for it is the Seed of the woman who finally 
will conquer the seed of the Serpent (v. 15). The 



34 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

story of this ultimate victory is reserved for the last 
book of the Bible. 

For the man in particular is the curse upon the 
ground. Henceforth, toil and sorrow, thorns and 
thistles, and sweat; and at last, a grave and a return 
to dust! A bitter judgment indeed, and the more so 
because of the memories of past blessedness; for the 
sharpest sting of the judgment for both Adam and 
Eve must have been the exclusion from the delight- 
some garden. But no place for the sinner is found in 
God's garden. Its cooling shade, its luscious fruits, 
its heavenly companionship — all were forfeited, and 
the Cherubim and the flaming swinging sword guarded 
against return. 

The Swiftness of Divine Vengeance 

As in each of the following epochal crises we shall 
note the comparative brevity and swiftness of God's 
vengeance when the fullness of time comes, so here, 
closely following their rebellion against God, at the 
hour of the day when formerly they had held sweet 
fellowship with Him, Adam and Eve were startled by 
hearing "the voice of Jehovah God walking in the 
garden in the cool of the day," and at once sought to 
hide themselves from His presence. But no longer 
finding delight in that presence they are doomed to 
separation from it. Already they have sought volun- 
tarily to hide from God, and now He immediately 
banishes them from His garden. It does not take long. 
A single, awful day! A morning or afternoon of 



THE EDENIC CRISIS 35 

listening to Satan, and an evening of hearing their 
doom pronounced by God ! Thus do the epochal crises 
essentially differ from the dispensations. The course 
of events that human history ordinarily takes swings 
on from century to century, but the direct judgments 
of God during the epochal crises occupy a compara- 
tively brief period. 

Mercy in the Midst of Judgment 

Yet in the midst of the Edenic judgments mercy 
was shown, as always. Man must be given a new 
trial. For this other dispensations were necessary. 
God was gracious. First, there was the promise that 
following the secret enmity and open conflict between 
the Seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent, 
shall come the final defeat of Satan. The culmination 
of the conflict of these two seeds, Christ and Anti- 
christ, occurs in the epochal crisis which the world is 
now facing. But the Seed of the woman shall surely 
triumph, according to the promise. 

The second exhibition of mercy with which God 
began the new dispensation was shown, as many be- 
lieve, in the covering that He provided for the man 
and the woman. "And Jehovah God made for Adam 
and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them" 
(Gen 3:21). Fig-leaf aprons were wholly insufficient 
for the covering of a guilty conscience. In the slain 
animals may we not see, as others have suggested, the 
first of that long series of sacrifices which pointed to 



36 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

the sacrificial Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin 
of the world? 

The third exhibition of mercy was veiled in the 
judgment of casting Adam and Eve out of the garden. 
This was merciful, lest man, the sinner, "put forth his 
hand and take of the tree of life, and eat, and live 
forever." Immortal life here upon earth was a pos- 
sibility, yet God would prevent man from forever 
prolonging here a life of sin. Not until the earth is 
purified and purged from sin and all of its conse- 
quences will man again behold the Tree of Life, which 
comes into view in the Revelation, bearing its twelve 
manner of fruits. "Blessed are they that wash their 
robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life" 
(Rev. 22:14). There is also the special promise: "To 
him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of 
the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God" (Rev. 
2:7). 

Satan Not at Once Destroyed 

But no mercy was shown to the instigator of sin. 
For him there was only condemnation. In Revela- 
tion 12:9 he is called the "great dragon," the "old 
serpent," the "Devil and Satan," the "deceiver of the 
whole world." He plays a prominent part in each of 
the great Epochal Periods of history. During each of 
the Dispensations he seems to get his way with the 
major portion of the race, for each ends in apparent 
failure so far as man is concerned, requiring the in- 
tervention of God. The curse pronounced upon the 



THE EDENIC CRISIS 37 

serpent whose form Satan assumed, affected not in the 
least the character of Satan, neither did it destroy his 
power to inflict evil upon man. But whatever his 
wiles, and however successful his repeated attacks, his 
doom was announced from the beginning. During all 
these intervening centuries of sin's desolations Satan 
has known that the day is set for the execution of his 
sentence. Never more active is his hatred against 
men than at present, yet soon may break upon the 
world the next epochal period (Rev. 4-19), which 
will bring about the binding of Satan for a thousand 
years ; after which he will deceive the nations for the 
last time and then himself be cast into the Lake of 
Fire. Although his sentence was announced by God 
when he first enticed man to sin, the execution of the 
sentence awaits the winding up of all affairs relating 
to the earth in its present form, the expunging of all 
sin and evil, and the final judgment of the wicked. 
Meanwhile Satan is in ceaseless antagonism to Christ 
and His people, deceiving and sifting and afflicting. 
As the present Age draws to a close Satan will greatly 
multiply his activities. But the real crisis of his 
career will occur in the next epoch, when he shall be 
cast out of heaven. Then he will have "great wrath, 
knowing that he hath but a short time" (Rev. 12 :i2). 
We have the warning that it will be a time of woe — 
a warning heralded from heaven. 

Man Without Excuse 
The Divine judgments which formed the crisis of 



38 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

the Edenic Age were amply foretold. Herein is 
another proof of God's great mercy. So far as man 
was concerned he was without excuse. God had ex- 
pressly said, "For in the day thou eatest thereof thou 
shalt surely die." Here certainly was warning of a 
coming and speedy judgment. Had it been heeded the 
history of the world's sin would never have been writ- 
ten. But over against the Divine warning of doom 
Satan put a lie: "Ye shall not surely die." And 
because Adam and Eve believed the lie sin entered 
from God, driven from the garden and the tree of 
the world, and death through sin. Man was separated 
life, and the awful reign of death at once began, as 
Paul has declared (Rom. 5:12). The Devil lied. 
God's warning should have been heeded. But the 
judgments yet to come upon the world have also been 
divinely and fully propliesied, and Satan is as busy as 
formerly in teaching men to doubt and deny them. 
They who do not believe these prophecies will be as 
inexcusable as were Adam and Eve. One such word 
of warning will here suffice. The Holy Spirit, speak- 
ing through Paul, declares, "and to you that are afflicted 
rest with us, t at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from 
heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, 
rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and 
to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: 
who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction 
from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his 
might, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, 



THE EDENIC CRISIS 39 

and to be marveled at in all them that believed (because 
our testimony unto you was believed) in that day." 

Argument from the Past to the Future 

This special passage has been selected because of 
its similarities to the judgments in Eden. Here, as 
there, angels participate; only here their weapon is 
"flaming fire" instead of flaming sword. Here, as 
there, the punishment is on account of disobedience. 
Here, as there, the vengeance of God is chiefly mani- 
fested in separation from His presence; only here it 
is "eternal destruction from the face of the Lord." 
They of the present age who lightly reject the Gospel 
and substitute an "eternal hope" would do well to 
give heed to the sure word of prophecy, as unto a lamp 
shining in a dark place (2 Pet. 1:19). The certain 
and literal fulfillment of prophecy in the great epochs 
that are past are a warning to us that the judgments 
prophesied as still in the future will surely fall upon 
them that know not God, and them that obey not the 
Gospel of our Lord Jesus. 



II 

The Flood Crisis 



41 



THE FLOOD CRISIS 



1. No Salvation Through Conscience or Mere 

Knowledge. 

2. The Severity of the Flood. 

3. Satan Behind the Scenes. 

4. Will God Again Judge the World? 

5. The Flood Foretold. 

6. The Brevity of the Flood. 

7. Offers of Mercy. 

8. The Type of the True Church Not Noah, but 

Enoch. 



42 



THE FLOOD 
CRISIS 

MAN was driven from Eden, but he retained 
his knowledge of good and evil. Satan did 
not wholly deceive Adam and Eve. Their 
eyes were indeed opened. But what use would they 
make of their new knowledge? Would the good 
triumph or the evil? Time must be given to fully 
demonstrate that an enlightened conscience possesses 
no power to preserve man from the corruption of sin. 
Yet in our own day some are advocating that man 
needs no guide or corrector other than conscience. 
They say that under the sting or the approval of this 
inner monitor there is no need of church or creed 
or even of a Divine revelation. According to them 
conscience is both executioner and rewarder. But the 
sad failure and wreck of the antediluvian world for- 
ever demonstrated that conscience alone has no power 
to eradicate sin. Let the Flood attest that something 
more is needed to elevate and restore a fallen race. 
Under the second testing of man, which extended over 
a millennium and a half and ended in calamitous fail- 
ure, society became wholly corrupt. "Every imagina- 
tion of the thoughts of his heart was only evil con- 
tinually." Sin brought forth its fruit. The knowl- 
edge of evil prevailed over the knowledge of good. 
There is no salvation in mere knowledge. Here is a 
warning for modern educators. So corrupt had men 
43 



44 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

become that nothing but the direct intervention of God 
could save the race from self-annihilation. This inter- 
vention is recorded in the crisis of the Flood. 

God Again upon the Earth 

In connection with the events of the Flood there is 
no explicit statement, as in succeeding periods, of God 
coming down to the earth. But the revelation to Noah 
of the coming destruction of the race, and also the 
detailed specifications of the Ark and the minute direc- 
tions given to Noah, would seem to be sufficient 
grounds for the assumption that the Flood crisis, as 
all others, was marked by the personal presence of 
God upon the earth. The account is so realistic, with 
no hint of dream or vision, that it is difficult not to 
think that Noah, like Adam, "heard the voice of 
Jehovah God," as He talked with him. 

The Severity of the Flood 

The sentence which God pronounced against the 
degenerate descendants of Adam and Eve was utter 
destruction. "And Jehovah said, I will destroy man 
whom I have created from the face of the ground." 
The execution of the sentence occurred in the second 
epochal crisis of human history. The outstanding 
characteristic of this period was the supernatural judg- 
ment of God upon an apostate race. 

"And the earth was corrupt before God, and the 
earth was filled with violence." Such language would 



THE FLOOD CRISIS 45 

imply a state of unrestrained sin and also lawlessness 
and anarchy. The outlook was hopeless even to God. 
Mere reformatory measures would not be remedial. 
Only the most drastic means could avert racial suicide. 
The destruction of the major portion of the race would 
be preferable to the suicide of the whole. So the 
Flood came. "All the fountains of the great deep 
were broken up, and the windows of heaven were 
opened." And "all flesh died." "Noah only was left, 
and they that were with him in the Ark." Such was 
the appalling judgment of God upon the first great 
apostacy of the race. 

Satan Behind the Scenes 

There is no mention of Satan here. But the moral 
conditions are such that we know he is behind the 
scenes. The chief reason given for the demoraliza- 
tion of society seems to be the intermarriage of the 
sons of God with the daughters of men. This has 
been explained by some to mean the illicit intercourse 
of fallen angels with women. Possibly this might 
be. It is a theory not to be lightly rejected. But a 
more natural explanation is that there was intermar- 
riage between the followers of God and those who 
were not, but who in reality were followers of Satan. 
The lines of separation were crossed over. Fair 
women, of devilish character and design, ensnared the 
sons of God, i. e., the followers of the God-religion. 
The phrase, "and they took them wives of all that 
they choose," hints that polygamy prevailed. The re- 



46 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

suit of this intermarriage between the true religionists 
and the worldlings was moral degeneracy. Giants 
there were in those days, but famed only for human 
prowess. They were men of might and also of force 
and cruelty, for "the earth was rilled with violence." 
The principles of God became supplanted by the prin- 
ciples of the Evil One, necessitating the intervention 
of God in devastating judgment. The devilish "white 
slave" traffic of the present day is probably only a 
faint suggestion of the prevailing prostitution that 
swept over the antediluvian world. Even the daugh- 
ters of Noah seem to have become tainted with the 
sin of their worldly associates. Satan's hold upon 
men could be loosened only by destroying men them- 
selves. 

Will God Again Judge the World? 

Will God again visit the earth with devastating 
judgments? This is a question of special interest to 
us. Many are saying, "No." Either they are ignor- 
ant or else they falsify the Word of God. Our 
Saviour likened the condition of the earth at the time 
of His return to its condition at the time of the Flood. 
He declared that the antediluvians were so absorbed 
in their feastings and social functions up to the very 
day in which Noah entered into the Ark that the sud- 
denness of the Flood "took them all away ; so shall be 

THE COMING OE THE SON OE MAN" (Matt. 24:37-39). 

The Apostle Peter is explicit concerning a future 
sweeping judgment, declaring that "the day of the 



THE FLOOD CRISIS 47 

Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens 
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements 
shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and 
the works therein shall be burned up" (2 Pet. 3:10). 
And Peter enforces his prophecy by an appeal to the 
judgment of the Flood: "There were heavens from 
of old, and an earth compacted out of water and 
amidst water, by the word of God; by which means 
the world that then was, being overflowed with water, 
perished : but the heavens that now are,, and the earth, 
by the same word have been stored up for fire, being 
reserved against the day of judgment and the destruc- 
tion of ungodly men" (3:5-7). 

Thus the world is facing another day of judgment. 
This fiery renovation will occur in the Day of the 
Lord, beginning with the return of our Lord in glory 
and ending with the passing away of the existing 
earth at the close of the Millennium. The Day of the 
Lord will indeed "come as a thief" upon an unsus- 
pecting world, but its close will be the most spectacular 
event in history. God will again visit the earth with 
His purifying judgments prior to the establishment 
of both His Millennial and His Eternal kingdoms. 
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words 
shall not pass away." "Seeing that these things are 
thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought 
ye to be in all holy living and godliness?" He who 
created can also destroy. The Word of God is sure. 
The Flood is ample proof. God will again judge the 
world, not once, but twice, in the two crisis periods 



48 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

that are still future. "But, according to his promise, 
we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness" (2 Pet. 3:13). 

The Flood Was Foretold 

But the Flood was fully prophesied. For one 
hundred and twenty years before the Flood came man- 
kind had been warned (Gen. 6:3). The revelation 
came to Noah, the only man who "walked with God." 
God told Noah what He was going to do to the world 
(6:13), and we can scarcely believe that Noah failed to 
notify others. Peter speaks of Noah as a "preacher of 
righteousness" to his generation, and he surely would 
not have refrained from depicting the terrors of the 
coming judgment. Moreover, the building of the Ark 
must itself have been a warning. So extraordinary 
a vessel, so unlike anything man had ever invented, 
and so huge, must have excited curiosity and caused 
a questioning of Noah, who necessarily would unfold 
the facts of the revelation that he had received from 
God. 

During the entire period of the building of the 
Ark the attention of men was constantly directed to 
the coming destruction. Finally, the gathering of the 
animals into the Ark, apparently of their own accord 
(6:20), was a warning that the Flood was near at 
hand. But all faith had perished from the earth. Men 
no longer believed in God. Noah only and his 
family were found worthy to be preserved from the 
impending doom. And although God has spoken of 



THE FLOOD CRISIS 49 

another "day of judgment and destruction of ungodly 
men," which introduces the Day of the Lord, yet men 
with mockery are asking, "Where is the promise of 
His coming?" Following the example of the Apostle 
Peter we would simply refer all such doubters to God's 
Word back to the Flood. 

The Brevity of the Flood 

It is important, in view of future judgment periods, 
that attention be called to the brevity of the Flood. 
Only forty days and nights were required for the 
Flood to come, though it prevailed for about one year 
(Gen. 7:11 with 8:13, 14). This was a compara- 
tively short time for such a sweeping destruction. 
But all of the judgment crises are short, and neces- 
sarily so. Besides, there is no need for them to be 
prolonged and God has mercifully shortened them. 
What Christ has promised with reference to the period 
of the Great Tribulation is true of all the epochal 
crisis periods: "And except those days had been 
shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but for 
the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." 

Offers of Mercy 

Although the Flood could not be averted offers of 
mercy doubtless were made to all who would repent. 
The righteous preaching of Noah certainly contained 
this gracious message. God's harshness is the harshness 
of love. He resorts to judgment only as a last ex- 
tremity and after all offers of mercy have been spurned. 



50 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

Here again Peter gives us a side light upon this period, 
referring to it as a time "when the longsuffering of 
God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a 
preparing" (i Pet. 3:20). Men would not hear; they 
were "disobedient" ; but during the long period of the 
building of the Ark God was waiting to show them 
mercy. 

Yet only Noah "found favor in the eyes of Jehovah." 
Why so? Because Noah "was a righteous man, and 
perfect in his generations." Not that he was per- 
fect in a sinless sense, but that he lived blamelessly 
before God. He had kept himself separated from the 
lawlessness and the corruption of the world around him. 
His secret was that he "walked with God," and that 
he "did according unto all that Jehovah commanded 
him." And when that iniquitous world was destroyed, 
"Noah only was left, and they that were with him 
in the ark" (Gen. 7:23). That judgment found the 
earthly people of God in the only place of safety. 
Likewise in the approaching epochal crisis, when our 
Lord shall return from heaven, there will be an earthly 
people miraculously preserved who will rule the mil- 
lennial earth. They are the sealed remnant of Israel 
and the great multitude of Gentiles who come out of 
the Great Tribulation (Rev. 7). 

The Type of the Church 

But the Church of this present age is heavenly in 
origin, in character, and in destiny, and hence is not 
typified by Noah, who was preserved in the midst of 



THE FLOOD CRISIS 51 

the Flood. In the manner of her deliverance the 
Church of Christ is typified rather by that other il- 
lustrious antediluvian, namely Enoch; for Enoch also 
"walked with God." And "by faith' Enoch was trans- 
lated that he should not see death" (Heb. n 15). He 
was removed from the earth before the Flood came. 
And this blessed experience is to be repeated in the 
future upon a far larger scale. "For the Lord him- 
self shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with 
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of 
God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we 
that are alive, that are left, shall together with them 
be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the 
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Where- 
fore comfort one another with these words" ( 1 Thess. 
4:16-18). It will be worth while to be preserved, 
like Noah, in the midst of the approaching overwhelm- 
ing judgments, but more blessed still to be translated 
without seeing death, like Enoch. Yet the unique 
experience of Enoch will be enjoyed only by those 
who have been well-pleasing unto God. Enoch had 
assurance of this before he was translated (Heb. 
11 :5). The Enoch type of life is a life of fellowship 
and of faith. We must believe God noisy, and walk 
with God here, in order to be counted worthy to es- 
cape death and be caught up to meet the Lord in the 
air when He returns for His waiting Church. 



Ill 

The Babel Crisis 



53 



THE BABEL CRISIS 



1. Failure of the Mosaic Dispensation. 

2. Human Nature Unchanged by the Flood. 

3. The Babel Rebellion. 

4. The Babel Judgment. 

5. Satan Unmentioned. 

6. Were the Babelites Forewarned? 

7. The Extent of the Dispersion. 

8. The Abandonment of the Race Not Final. 

9. Will Babylon Again Be Destroyed? 



54 



THE BABEL 
CRISIS 

THE Noahic Dispensation was ushered in with 
the solemn ceremony of building an altar unto 
Jehovah for the offering of burnt sacrifices of 
every clean beast and bird (Gen. 8:20). Thus the 
religion of Jehovah was immediately reestablished in 
the earth. In the preceding age religion had ceased 
to be a power in men's lives. Their knowledge of 
evil had triumphed over their knowledge of good. 
Conscience proved to be too weak a sovereign for 
the regaining of the lost Paradise. But with the new 
dispensation God introduced a new commandment to 
check the progress of sin. Man was now to be tested 
under conscience plus a limited form of human gov- 
ernment. Capital punishment was divinely instituted 
(Gen. 9:6). In the preceding age Cain, the murderer, 
was allowed to go free, and the result was a posterity 
of criminals (Gen. 4:17-24). With this new law 
for the elimination of crime society was reestablished 
in the earth and a new dispensation began, but which 
speedily ran its course. 

Human Nature Unchanged by the Flood 

The Flood did not change the nature of man the 
sinner. For this something other and far different 
was needed than the revelation of God through His 
55 



56 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

righteous judgments. This will be seen to be es- 
pecially true in the future (Rev. 16:9, II, 21). Not- 
withstanding the awful judgments upon men of the 
future, it is said of them, "And they repented not 
of their works." 

God had promised not again to curse the ground; 
neither would He again smite any more every living 
thing; and the order of nature would be preserved so 
long as the earth endured. Yet God knew what was 
in man and that he came through the Flood with the 
same corrupt nature. The evidence of this fact was 
soon forthcoming. Towards the end of the next 
chapter (Gen. 9) is recorded the sin and shame of 
Noah, the man who had walked with God, and also 
the sin and curse of Ham. With the awful results of 
the Flood fresh in his memory the drunkenness of 
Noah surprises us. Possibly he was overconfident of 
his position and his privileges. But Noah, new head 
of the race, was no stronger to resist sin than was 
Adam. Victories over past sins are no guarantee of 
freedom from present temptation and defeat. The 
saint may any moment go down in shame before some 
new assault of Satan. 

But long before sin becomes a social evil it has 
been hidden in the heart. This God knew and re- 
vealed to Noah. "The imagination of man's heart is 
evil from his youth." This was after the Flood. Be- 
fore society can become outwardly corrupt the in- 
dividual unit of society has secretly cherished and 
committed sin in his imagination. Sin will not re- 



THE BABEL CRISIS 57 

main in the heart. The longer it is coddled there the 
stronger it will be when it bursts its chrysalis seclusion. 
And when society itself becomes corrupt it faces a 
catastrophe. God appears upon the scene in order to 
prevent total wreckage. Though His judgments are 
dire and often destructive they also are salvatory. 

The Babel Rebellion 

The centralization of the race in the plains of Shinar 
came about naturally, but quite unnatural was their 
fearful aspiration to build a city and a tower which 
should prevent their disruption and scatterment. By 
their own ingenuity and united effort they would pre- 
vent such a disaster: "And they said, Come, let us 
build us a oity, and a tower, whose top may reach 
unto heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be 
scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" 
(Gen. 11:4). 

We have here evidences of an organized political 
and religious revolt against God. Consolidation was 
considered of prime importance. Divisions probably 
had already come and the people were fearful of even 
greater schisms. Sin always entails enstrangement and 
separation. Irreligion and idolatry doubtless were 
prevalent. Indeed the great Tower of Babel is thought 
to have been a huge temple for idolatrous worship, 
pyramidal in shape, outrivaling the largest of the 
pyramids in Egypt. If this be true there was a wide 
departure from the simple altar worship instituted by 
Noah. But if the unity of the true faith had been 



58 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

lost, it was vain to strive to preserve an ungodly unity 
by however ingenious methods. The titanic attempt 
to preserve the solidarity of the race and to defy 
heaven was doomed to failure from the start. There 
can never be an essential unity among men that does 
not center in God. Any other is a challenge to God, 
a challenge which He will not be slow to accept when 
the crisis comes. In the case of Babel that crisis came 
when the ungodly men of that worldly city were 
busily and apparently successfully carrying out their 
proud plans of making a name for themselves. Self- 
glorification, rather than the glory of God, was their 
avowed ambition. This is the master sin. There is 
none greater. And when the entire race became im- 
bued with the spirit of self -exaltation the time was 
ripe for God to interpose, lest His own name be for- 
gotten and the entire race worship and serve the 
creature instead of the Creator. Such a rebellion God 
could not permit to succeed. 

The Descent of God and the Babel Judgment 

God beheld from heaven and was alarmed for His 
cause. This was no petty revolt, but an open rebel- 
lion. It was defiance of God, and He considered it 
so ominous that He made a personal reconnoiter of 
the situation. "And Jehovah came down to see the 
city and the tower, which the children of men builded" 
(Gen. 11:5). 

That was no mean race. For men of modern 
achievements to despise the ancients is sadly to un- 



THE BABEL CRISIS 59 

derrate their capacity and skill. Even God did not 
despise the ability of the postdiluvian architects and 
city builders. His verdict was, "And now nothing 
will be withholden from them, which they purpose 
to do." However vaulted their ambitious schemes 
they would carry them out. There was just one thing 
to be done. Divine interposition must be resorted to. 
This decision was quickly reached, and the simplicity 
and ease with which the Babel rebellion was ended is 
amazing. 

God said, "Come, LET us go down, and there con- 
found their language, that they may not understand 
one another's speech" (Gen. 11:7). This was the 
first step in the judgment. Their "one language" was 
not being put to a good use. A universal language 
may help to hasten either the development or the de- 
terioration of mankind. Without the hindrance of 
diverse languages either good or evil is quickly dis- 
seminated. Upon the wings of a common speech sin 
may fly quite as swiftly as salvation. A universal 
language is not an unmixed good. In the case of 
the postdiluvians evil made rapid progress and culmi- 
nated in open rebellion against God. Therefore God 
checked the progress of sin by simply confounding 
their language. 

The Dispersion 

The second step in this Divine judgment was to 
break up the common home of the race and scatter 
the once united family (v. 8). This might have fol- 



60 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

lowed naturally and logically the strife occasioned by 
the confusion of the tongues, but is attributed to the 
direct judgment of God. Their own awesome dread 
of their fate was a prophecy of its accomplishment. 
God could not send another Flood to destroy those 
reprobates, for He had covenanted with the race not 
to do so. Hence their judgment was not destruction, 
but dispersion. By thus miraculously interfering with 
this vain attempt of men to securely establish them- 
selves beyond the reach of internal discension and out- 
ward disaster, God sought to check the course of sin. 
Through antagonism to each other and separation, co- 
operation in sin would be partially avoided. 

A Lesson of Warning 

The lesson is one for our own instruction. Again 
we see the world moving towards unification. Bar- 
riers of language and custom are giving way before 
the triumphs of modern methods of communication 
and dissemination of knowledge. But any unification 
or consolidation of the world that does not eliminate 
sin and include the worship of the true God is doomed 
to failure. The disintegrating power of sin would of 
itself be sufficient to accomplish this. But when that 
unification becomes blasphemous the descent of God 
for judgment will be repeated. God again will come 
down to the earth and interfere with the course of 
the world and judge those who glory in self-achieve- 
ments and ambitious projects for the perpetuation of 
the present order of things. The consequences of 



THE BABEL CRISIS 61 

that coming descent will be most fearful, "At the 
revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the 
angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance 
to them that know not God, and to them that obey 
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus" (2 Thess. 1 :j, 8). 

Abandoned by God 

Another step in the Babel judgment is not recorded 
in Genesis. There may be something worse for the 
race than extinction. Instead of this God's method 
of punishment was simply abandonment to their own 
evil ways. Paul has preserved this record of God's 
dealings with that idolatrous world. When men be- 
came vain in their reasonings and changed the glory 
of the incorruptible God for various forms of idolatry, 
"God gave them up in the lusts of their heart unto 
uncleanness" ; "God gave them up unto vile passions" ; 
"God gave them up unto a reprobate mind" (Rom. 
1:24, 26, 28). The loathsome moral condition of 
Sodom and Gomorrah is a miniature picture of the 
debasing corruption that followed the race when thus 
abandoned by God. Man is dependent upon God. 
Separation from His fellowship is as blighting as the 
withholding of the rains of heaven from the tender 
shoots of spring. Almost anything is better than 
abandonment by God. That condition is worse then 
hopeless. It is a living death. 



62 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

Satan Again Unmentioned 

In the brief account of this epochal crisis we have 
no mention of Satan. But every attempt to be in- 
dependent of God, every doubt of His goodness, every 
self-glorification, every act of rebellion, is of the Devil. 
To him we must credit such a blasphemous ambition 
as would build a tower that would reach to heaven. 
Such a spirit of confidence in self, and the desire for 
the glorification of self, could come only from Satan. 
It was apparently an anti-God attempt to establish 
self-worship. The Babelites had no spirit of "Thine 
is the power, and the glory, forever." Instead, it was 
"And let us make us a name." This is the spirit 
of the one in Isaiah who says, "I will ascend into 
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of 
God : * * * * I will ascend above the heights 
of the clouds ; I will make myself like the Most High." 
Such is the ambitious and rebellious spirit of Satan. 

Were the Babelites Forewarned? 

Whether or not the citizens of Babel were fore- 
warned of the coming judgment the record does not 
state. That they had such a knowledge is intimated 
in their statement of their purpose to build a city and 
a tower "lest we be scattered abroad upon the face 
of the whole earth." This fear may have been due 
to disobedience of the command given to Noah and 
his sons: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish 
the earth." But if God did not forewarn them of 



THE BABEL CRISIS 63 

the coming dispersion it was contrary to His custom 
as already revealed in the two preceding epochal 
periods. Before Adam and Eve sinned God had pro- 
nounced their doom. They knew beforehand the con- 
sequence. And before the Flood came the world had 
ample forewarning. So it is not improbable that the 
Babelites knew of a coming dispersion and sought 
through their mighty city and heaven-topping tower 
to escape the threatened judgment. This attempt to 
defy God was disastrous. It simply hastened the evil 
day Their fear was a prophecy of their doom. It 
is not for man to defy God, but to worship Him. 

The Extent of the Dispersion 

The geographical extent either of the Flood or of 
the Dispersion is out of the province of this dis- 
cussion. But as the results of the Edenic judgments 
were race-wide, so also were the results of the Flood 
and the Dispersion. The entire race is included in 
the statement, "And the whole earth was of one 
language and of one speech." They were not dwell- 
ing in all the earth, for the next verse (Gen. 11:2) 
speaks of their centralization in one particular portion 
of the earth. But the extent of the judgment seems 
to include the earth in its intent : "So Jehovah scattered 
them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth." 
In each of the great epochal crises God's dealings are 
with the entire race, either as a whole or representa- 
tively. This is one of the common characteristics of 
these unparalleled upheavals of history, in which we 



64 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

are given new revelations of both the wrath and the 
mercy of God. 

The Abandonment of the Race not Final 

Out of that idolatrous, apostate, and abandoned race 
God called Abraham. And the calling out of Abraham 
was a merciful provision for the entire race. Amidst 
the babel of voices resulting from the confusion of 
tongues men no longer heard the voice of God. There- 
fore God soon centered His dealings with the race 
upon a single individual, separating him from his 
fellows in order to better acquaint him with Him- 
self. Whenever God has a message for the world 
He does not speak it to the world in the mass, but 
first to the one whose ear has been attuned to the 
voice of God in the secret place. So God made a 
friend of Abraham in order to show Himself friendly 
towards the race. This is the meaning of the promise, 
"And in thee shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed" (Gen. 12:3). The call of Abraham unto 
separation to God was a call that finally should in- 
clude the entire race, and all nations shall yet come 
and worship before Him. God did not utterly cast 
off the nations in the separation of Abraham to Him- 
self, but planned that they should eventually be sharers 
in the Abrahamic covenant. Thus in this epochal 
period, although God descended in judgment upon 
men, He also had in mind to bless the race which He 
had thus judged. The rebelliousness of man was 
punished, but with a view to future blessing. 



THE BABEL CRISIS 65 

Will Babylon Again Be Destroyed? 

Babel, or Babylon, seat of idolatry and of the first 
open rebellion against God, will again come up for 
remembrance before God, "And Babylon the great 
was remembered in the sight of God, to give unto her 
the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath" 
(Rev. 16:19). That great world-city is a type of 
the civilization that is displeasing to God. Cultured 
and sensual, exalted in its own eyes, and godless, 
Babylon is the acme and the glory of those who would 
defy the God of heaven. Babylon of the Apocalypse 
is "the great city, which reigneth over the kings of 
the earth" (Rev. 17:18). It symbolizes the arts and 
crafts, commerce, false religion, politics, luxuries, 
pleasures and corruptions of the earth. It stands for 
human greatness and achievement with God left out. 

That "great city" may, however, be more than a 
mere symbol. It is not improbable that another Baby- 
lon shall suddenly arise upon the site of ancient Babel. 
The plains of Shinar are again to be populous and 
prosperous. The "world's granary" is to be re-opened. 
The three greatest nations of Europe — Russia, Ger- 
many, and England, are eagerly scheming to get con- 
trol of the valley of the Euphrates. Already it is 
planned to open up the ancient canals and to build 
railroads. Foreign capital is being invested. Jewish 
money in particular is being expended. When once the 
country is fully opened and life and investments fully 
safeguarded, marvelous changes will speedily follow; 



66 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

A great city will become a necessity. It is not im- 
possible that it may be rebuilt, and then destroyed 
forever! "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great." 
"Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! 
for in one hour is thy judgment come." "And a 
strong angel took up a stone, as it were a great mill- 
stone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with a 
great fall shall Babylon, the great city, be cast down, 
and shali, B£ Found no more AT au,." Revelation, 
in the eighteenth chapter, gives in detail the doom of 
that mystical Babylon of the future which shall as- 
sume to exalt herself and to perpetuate her corrupt 
influence over the nations of the earth. Wanton and 
godless, she shall be utterly demolished. God's ideal 
city is the New Jerusalem, coming down out of 
heaven, and type of all that is good, as Babylon is 
type of all that is evil. 



IV 

The Egypt Crisis 



67 



THE EGYPT CRISIS 



1. Precipitated by the Cry of Israel for Help. 

2. Moral Condition of the World. 

3. The Dread Severity of the Plagues. 

4. The Plagues Typical of Future Judgments. 

5. The Plagues as a Conflict with Satan. 

6. Egypt as a Representative Nation. 

7. Pharaoh as a Type. 

8. Exhibitions of Mercy. 

9. The Time Element. 

10. Due Only to the Supernatural Intervention 
of God. 



68 



THE EGYPT 
CRISIS 

GOD covenanted with Abraham to make of him 
a great nation. But this promise showed no 
evidence of realization until the deliverance of 
the Israelites out of the power of the Egyptians. The 
history of Abraham and his family for over four 
hundred years preceded the creation of the promised 
nation. During this period man was tested under 
a covenant of grace. While down in Egypt Abra- 
ham's descendants seemed to have lost faith in the 
Promised Seed. Individuals of the family doubtless 
lived under the Abrahamic covenant, but as a whole 
the descendants of Abraham departed from the God 
of Abraham and for punishment were reduced to 
slavery. 

God Comes Down to the Earth 

In the solitude of the wilderness of Horeb Moses 
saw a strange sight. A bush was aflame, but though 
it burned and blazed it was not consumed. This 
wonder decided Moses to turn aside to investigate. 
It truly was a miracle. But Moses was to experience 
a thing still more wonderful. As he drew nigh he 
was arrested by a voice out of the midst of the flam- 
ing bush. This was wierd and startling; but more 
marvelous than the voice was the Person to whom the 
69 



70 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

voice belonged. For "God called unto him out of the 
midst of the bush." And when Moses knew who 
spoke unto him, he "hid his face: for he was afraid 
to look upon God." Moses was reverent. Moses was 
worshipful. The God of whom he had heard, of 
whom he had been taught from infancy, to whom he 
had prayed, with whom he had had spiritual fellow- 
ship, was now present and was visibly manifesting His 
presence. What else could Moses do but bow down 
before Him? 

God's own explanation of His presence there in 
the wilderness of Horeb is what now concerns us: 
"And Jehovah said, I surely have seen the affliction 
of my people that are in Egypt, and have heard their 
cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their 
sorrows; and / am come dozvn to deliver them out of 
the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out 
of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land 
flowing with milk and honey." 

"I am come) down." Another acute condition had 
arisen — a world-crisis. It became necessary for God 
to appear in person upon the scene. Forty years be- 
fore Moses had aspired to deliver his people, but he 
was rejected. The time was not ripe. But now, out 
of their distress and affliction, the people were cry- 
ing unto God. There was no other recourse, no other 
deliverer. 

"I am come down To deliver." This is the ex- 
planation of the calling and commissioning of Moses, 
and also the explanation of all the judgments upon 



THE EGYPT CRISIS 71 

Egypt, and of the mercies shown to the Israelites. The 
descent of God to the earth was the chief event in the 
Egypt crisis, the real explanation of all the other great 
crises. 

Moral Condition of the World 

The moral condition of the world at the close of 
the Abrahamic Dispensation was deplorable. In the 
land of Palestine the iniquity of the Amorite became 
fullgrown (Gen. 15:16). According to the Divine 
portrayal in Leviticus, chapter 18, the nations were 
defiled, and the land abhorrently "vomiteth out her 
inhabitants." The chosen people were warned against 
its repulsive abominations. As for Egypt — civilized, 
cultured Egypt — it was wholly given over to idolatrous 
pantheism and superstitious practices. Even the 
Israelites inclined towards idolatry, if we may judge 
from the demand they made upon Aaron for gods 
who should go before them (Ex. 32:1). The Golden 
Calf incident was at least a partial reverting to the 
worship to which they had grown accustomed while in 
Egypt. The moral condition of the world was such 
that the time had come for God again to intervene 
in the course of history in order to purify its foul 
current and to divert it into a new channel. Again, 
as in the cases of Noah and of Abraham, there must 
be a separation of the Chosen Seed from the rest of 
the world in order to preserve and perpetuate the 
worship of the true God. Another failure on the part 
of man was met by another trial upon the part of 
God. 



72 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

The Dread Severity of Plagues 

So familiar is the story of the deliverance of the 
Israelites from Egyptian bondage that it is needless 
to retell it. From the moment when God revealed 
Himself to Moses in the Burning Bush, up to the 
drowning of the Egyptian hosts in the Red Sea, we 
are in the presence of the supernatural. All of those 
miracles of judgment probably had a natural basis; 
but the unusual severity, and the time and place of 
the judgments, portray the supernatural presence of 
God in purifying judgment. 

A fresh glimpse of the character and severity of 
these judgments will help us to understand the yet 
more appalling character of those in the Apocalypse. 
The first four plagues chiefly affected the comfort of 
the people. In them there was no loss of property 
or of life, save the fishes in the bloody waters. But 
it was the foulness and stench that were most ob- 
jectionable to the people; and it was the personal dis- 
comfort of the plagues of the frogs, and of the lice, 
and of the flies, that -the record makes specially prom- 
inent. 

When, however, we come to the remaining series 
there is acute suffering of beast and of man, and 
actual loss of property and life. The murrain de- 
stroyed the cattle of the Egyptians; the boils afflicted 
even the magicians, "who could not stand before 
Moses because of the boils"; the hail destroyed herb- 
age, cattle, and servants who were in the fields, com- 
pelling proud Pharaoh to quail and to confess his sin. 



THE EGYPT CRISIS 73 

So severe and sweeping were these plagues that 
Pharaoh's servants came and besought him to grant 
the request of Moses, since "Egypt is destroyed." 

Driven out from the presence of Pharaoh, Moses 
sent the locusts, which covered the land and ate all 
green things, whether of herb or tree. Then swiftly 
followed the awful darkness that lay like a pall over 
the land for three days, arresting all activities and 
imprisoning each person in his place. But the last 
plague was the most fearful of all, when at midnight 
the mysterious Angel of the Lord smote all the first- 
born of the land of Egypt, from the first-born of 
Pharaoh that sat upon his throne unto the first-born 
of the captive that was in the dungeon. Not a home 
in which was not one dead. Awful was the cry in 
Egypt that night ! 

Pharaoh finally yielded and granted all the demands 
of Moses. The Israelites were urged to depart from 
Egypt in haste and laden with gifts. The plagues were 
over, and the judgments might have ended but for the 
fickleness and foolhardiness of Pharaoh and his people 
in pursuing the Israelites, which led to the overthrow 
of their hosts in the Red Sea. Despoiled, desolated, 
and impoverished, without cattle, crops, slaves or army, 
Egypt did not recuperate from these just judgments 
of God for many years. 

The Plagues Typical of Future Judgments 

Merely as astonishing facts of history these judg- 
ments of God will ever be full of interest. But that 



74 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

interest is greatly enhanced when we think of those 
dire events as typical of others still more dire and 
widespread, as described in the Apocalypse. The 
plagues by which God judged the Egyptians portray 
the world's judgments as set forth in the Seals, and 
the Trumpets, and the Bowls of Wrath. For in them, 
also, we have rivers and fountains turned to blood, 
frog-like spirits, grievous sores, thunders, fire and 
hail, strange locusts from the Abyss, dense darkness, 
the sea mingled with fire; and in addition, sword and 
famine and pestilence and earthquake — judgments 
from evil men and beasts, and judgments from above 
and from beneath. Knowing the effects of the Ten 
Plagues upon the land and people of Egypt, we are 
able to forecast the overwhelming disasters when 
God's judgments shall be in all the earth in the ap- 
proaching crisis. 

The Plagues as a Conflict with Satan 
We shall fail of a clear apprehension of the Egypt 
crisis unless we perceive that these judgments were 
not simply to afflict the Egyptians, but were also 
directed against Satan and the gods whom the 
Egyptians worshiped. "And against all the gods of 
Egypt I will execute judgments" (Ex. 12:12). 
Each plague was a mocking of some one of their 
gods. One after another the various deities who pre- 
sided over the sacred Nile, and over the insects, the 
animals, the air, and the sun, were shown to be in- 
ferior to Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews. The 



THE EGYPT CRISIS 75 

Egyptian magicians could do wonders which astonished 
the people, but they soon were baffled and defeated 
before Moses and Aaron, the representatives of God. 
Satan's representatives, at the end of our own dis- 
pensation will also be able to work astonishing mir- 
acles, so as to almost deceive even the elect (Matt. 
24:24), and will succeed in deceiving the remainder 
of the world (Rev. 13:13, 14). Finally Satan him- 
self will enter into the struggle. He and his angels, 
cast out of heaven by Michael and his angels, will 
personally direct the conflict. But they will meet a 
deadly defeat at the hands of Christ Himself (Rev. 
12:7-17; 19:19). 

Egypt a Representative Nation 

In the preceding crises God dealt with the race, but 
here His dealings were with the representative nation 
of the earth. All of the nations had lost the knowl- 
edge of the true God. Through these judgments 
God would again teach men to honor Him. 

First of all, He makes Himself known to Moses 
by His name Jehovah — a name to be feared and rever- 
enced. The Israelites were to be His chosen people, 
and through their marvelous deliverance they would 
"know that I am Jehovah your God" (Ex. 6:7) ; and 
by these same judgments God sought to reveal Him- 
self to the Egyptians : "And the Egyptians shall know 
that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth my hand 
upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel 
from among them" (Ex. 7:5). Again at the Red 



76 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

Sea God declared, "And I will get me honor upon 
Pharaoh, and upon all his host; and the Egyptians 
shall know that I am Jehovah" (Ex. 14:4). To 
Pharaoh the message was sent, "Thus saith Jehovah, 
In this thou shalt know that I am Jehovah" (Ex. 
7:17). When Pharaoh entreated Moses to ask that 
the plague of frogs be ended, Moses said, "Be it ac- 
cording to thy word; that thou mayest know that 
there is none like unto Jehovah our God" (Ex. 8:10). 
The land of Goshen was set apart "to the end that 
thou mayest know that I am Jehovah in The midst of 
The earth" (Ex. 8 122). Again, "For I will this time 
send all my plagues upon thy heart, and upon thy 
servants, and upon thy people ; that thou mayest know 

that THERE IS NONE LIKE ME IN ALL THE EARTH" 

(Ex. 9:14). 

Especially is the representative character of Egypt 
manifest in the fact that the nation was not totally 
destroyed. Egypt was intended for an object lesson 
to the rest of the world. God puts it this way : "But 
in very deed for this cause I have made thee to, stand, 
to show thee my power, and that my name may be 

DECLARED THROUGHOUT ALL THE EARTH" (Ex. 9:15, 

16). Egypt stood as the representative of all the apos- 
tate nations, which alike merited judgment upon their 
idolatrous worship. 

In thus redeeming and separating Israel, the first- 
born nation, through the terrors of judgment may we 
not foresee the time when all nations shall acknowledge 
God to be "the ruler of the kings of the earth" (Rev. 
1 15). But this shall come to pass not simply through 



THE EGYPT CRISIS 77 

the present preaching of the Gospel, but finally through 
the punitive and devastating judgments of God. 

Pharaoh as a Type 

In Pharaoh, we have a type of the coming oppressor, 
the representative of Satan, at the culmination of the 
present struggle between the forces of good and evil. 
Like Pharaoh, the coming representative of Satan will 
persecute the people of God, especially the Jews (Rev. 
12:17; 13:7). He will mock and defy the God of 
heaven, as Pharaoh did repeatedly. He will blas- 
pheme God, aspire to the world's worship, and will 
insist upon putting his mark upon all who will not 
serve him. His bondage will be worse than that of 
Egypt. None will escape him save those who have 
been "written from the foundation of the world in 
the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain" 
(Rev. 13:8). These shall "come off victorious from 
the beast, and from his image, and from the number 
of his name, standing by the sea of glass, having 
harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the 
servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, 
Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God, 
the Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, thou 
King of the ages. Who shall not fear, O Lord, and 
glorify thy name? for thou only art holy; for all the 
nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy 
righteous acts have been made manifest" (Rev. 
15:2-4). 



78 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 
Exhibitions of Mercy 

Although each of the epochal periods is a judg- 
ment period and manifests the wrath of God against 
sinners, yet each also contains revelations of His 
wondrous love and mercy. By reason of the Plagues 
the land of Egypt was laid in ruins and the people 
themselves were despoiled, sorrow-stricken, and slain. 
Yet God gave merciful forewarning. God always 
gives men all the show there is. Never does He 
take undue advantage because of His foreknowledge. 
Every judgment period has been foretold. As a rule, 
ample forewarning has been forthcoming in due time 
to escape. In the case of the Plagues all were fore- 
announced, save the third, sixth and ninth, which 
broke suddenly and unexpectedly. But with a single 
exception none of the forewarnings were taken ad- 
vantage of. This exception was during the plague 
of hail. "He that feared the word of Jehovah among 
the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his 
cattle flee into the houses: and he that regarded not 
the word of Jehovah left his servants and his cattle 
in the field" (Ex. 9:20, 21). It was the same way 
at the time of the Flood. A few, eight souls, be- 
lieved God and were saved. But those who dis- 
believed made no provision for the future, lost all 
they had, and were themselves destroyed. Every 
prophecy of God's Word has had, or will have, a 
literal fulfillment, and is also an unfailing test of char- 
acter — a savor from life unto life, and from death unto 
death. 



THE EGYPT CRISIS 79 

But the most striking exhibitions of mercy were in 
connection with the preservation of God's chosen 
people. With all the rest of Egypt the Israelites were 
afflicted by the first three plagues. Thereafter there 
was a remarkable "distinction" made between them 
and the Egyptians. The land of Goshen was "set 
apart" and exempted. There were no swarms of flies 
for that section of the land. The murrain which de- 
stroyed cattle elsewhere, did not affect the cattle be- 
longing to the Israelites. Only in the land of Goshen 
was there no hail. Thick darkness elsewhere, but all 
the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. 
Death of the first-born in every house throughout the 
land, but not in the homes of the Hebrews. As God 
saved eight souls from the destruction of the Flood, 
so now He saved a nation. It was just as easy. And 
when the Day of the Lord shall come with swift de- 
struction upon the wicked, who shall in nowise escape, 
God will preserve His own. The Revelation describes 
in particular a sealed company of the twelve tribes of 
Israel who shall be kept as Israel of old was kept 
during the Ten Plagues. There will be also a "multi- 
tude which no man could number, out of every nation 
and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing 
before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in 
white robes, and palms in their hands * * * These 
are they that come out of The Great Tribulation" 
(Rev. 7:9-14)- 



80 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

The Time Element 

In the study of these epochal periods let us con- 
tinually bear in mind their comparative shortness of 
time. Already we have noted the swiftness and 
brevity of the Edenic judgment. The Flood judgment 
required only forty days and forty nights for its exe- 
cution. We do not know the extent of time occupied 
by the judgment of the confusion of tongues at Babel, 
but nothing in the nature of that judgment required 
an extended period. Assuming a naturalistic basis for 
the Ten Plagues, it has been estimated that they ex- 
tended over a period of about nine months, or through 
one cycle of annual crops. After the description of 
the judgment of the waters turned to blood there is 
the statement, "And seven days were fulfilled, after 
that Jehovah had smitten the river." This is not a 
statement, apparently, of the abatement of the judg- 
ment, but simply indicates the time that elapsed before 
God sent the next judgment. How long it took for 
the frogs to cover the land we are not informed ; but 
the unusualness of the phenomenon caused Pharaoh 
to attribute it to the hand of God, and so humbled 
the great monarch that he besought Moses to entreat 
Jehovah to remove the curse. This was done upon 
the morrow. The plague of the lice, and of the flies, 
and of the murrain, and of the boils, and of the hail, 
seemed to have followed each other in rapid succes- 
sion, allowing only sufficient time for the full extent 
of each judgment to become apparent, and for Pharaoh 
to repent. The plague of the hail ruined only the 



THE EGYPT CRISIS 81 

barley and the flax, the wheat and the spelt maturing 
in time for the plague of locusts, which also destroyed 
the fruit and ate up every green thing. The longest 
time to be allowed for the accomplishment of each 
plague probably did not exceed several weeks. The 
thick darkness lasted only three days, and the slaying 
of the first-born throughout the land was the tragedy 
of a single night! And although the preparation for 
the Red Sea judgment continued through one night, 
the actual destruction of army and charioteers and 
horsemen of Pharaoh was the work of only a few 
minutes. 

This Crisis Due to the Supernatural Intervention 
of God 

It is notable that the record describes each judg- 
ment as the immediate effect of supernatural power 
bestowed by God and exercised by Moses and Aaron. 
There were no exceptions to this rule. Each judg- 
ment followed immediately some action of the chosen 
representatives of God. This phenomenon character- 
izes all of the judgment periods. The events of the 
Apocalypse are no exception. They are not the results 
of the gradual unfoldings of ordinary history or of 
the ordinary course of nature. Each series of judg- 
ments, and each individual judgment, is directly trace- 
able to supernatural agency. First, there is recorded 
a transaction in heaven, and this is followed imme- 
diately by appalling judgments upon the earth. This 
is one of the distinguishing characteristics of an epoch 



82 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

in distinction from a dispensation. These parallels be- 
tween the plagues upon Egypt and the Apocalyptic 
judgments are here drawn in order to help us better 
to anticipate the brevity of the time occupied by the 
Apocalyptic judgments recorded by John. 

Further Descents of God 

The Egyptian crisis period includes also the year, 
or more, following the crossing of the Red Sea — a 
year of judgment, of mercy, and of the giving of the 
Law. It is not necessary to enter into these details. 
But one fact should be emphasized ; namely, the mani- 
fested presence of God upon the earth. At the begin- 
ning of this crisis period God appeared to Moses in 
the burning bush on Mount Horeb and commissioned 
him to deliver His people and bring them to that 
mountain (Ex. 3:12). There at the close of the period 
God again manifested His presence when He entered 
into covenant relationship with the redeemed nation. 

While God's presence had been with the people on 
their journey to Sinai, yet there is described a special 
descent of God in connection with the giving of the 
Law. In the third month, while Israel was encamped 
in the wilderness of Sinai, God called to Moses out 
of the mountain to receive a special message for the 
people (Ex. 19:3). Afterwards God explained to 
Moses: "Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that 
the people may hear when I speak with thee, and may 
also believe thee forever" (Ex. 19:9). The words 



THE EGYPT CRISIS 83 

were spoken to Moses, but the people were to see the 
cloud and to hear the voice. 

Later still there is the command that the people 
sanctify themselves by the third day; "for the third 
day Jehovah will, come down in the sight of all the 
people upon mount Sinai" (Ex. 19:11). This promise 
was literally fulfilled: "And mount Sinai, the whole 
of it, smoked, because Jehovah descended upon it in 

fire And Jehovah came down upon mount Sinai, 

to the top of the mount: and Jehovah called Moses 
to the top of the mount; and Moses went up" (Ex. 
19:18-20). 

Special emphasis is given to these descents of God 
to the earth during the crisis periods of the past, be- 
cause there is an insidious unbelief in the actual and 
personal return of Christ to the earth during the crisis 
period which we of this age are approaching, when 
He shall descend from heaven, with the voice of the 
archangel, and with the trump of God (1 Thess. 4:16). 



V 

The Crisis of the Cross 



85 



THE CRISIS OF THE CROSS 



1. End of the Mosaic Dispensation. 

2. Prophecy Literally Fulfilled. 

3. An Era of the Supernatural. 

4. The Moral Condition of the World. 

5. Calvary Includes the World. 

6. Calvary as a Judgment Scene. 

7. The Second Dispersion. 

8. Christ's Conflict with Satan. 

9. Brevity of the Period. 
10. A New Dispensation. 



86 



THE CRISIS OF 
THE CROSS 

THE last of the five epochal periods that are 
past had to do with Christ's mission to the 
earth as its Saviour. Since this period is the 
most recent we naturally are the most familiar with 
it, but also because more of its details have been 
handed down to us. After an age-long trial of God's 
chosen people under the reign of Divine law another 
of those volcanic upheavals of human history burst 
forth, bringing to a climax the Mosaic Dispensation 
and introducing the Christian. From Moses to Christ 
there were isolated instances of Divine interposition 
which caused upheavals in the ordinary course of his- 
tory, but they were not of sufficiently great importance 
to mark off great transitional periods of history. Each 
new dispensation begins with an entirely new order of 
dealings upon the part of God; and the change from 
the old order to the new always is epochal and revolu- 
tionary. As we review history these outstanding crises 
intercept our vision like series of successive mountain 
ranges. The dramatic events of these crucial periods 
are, as we have seen, the most vital and intensely in- 
teresting periods of history, because in each God is 
so manifestly and actively present to judge the race, 
and also to bless it with new and greater provisions 
and offers of mercy. 

87 



88 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 
Prophecy Literally Fulfilled 

This epochal period was more clearly prophesied 
and depicted than any other preceding epoch. Only 
the period next to come surpasses it in fulness of pre- 
vious description. Throughout the Old Testament 
were gleams and visions of the coming Deliverer. In 
symbol, in type, and in prophecy He was the Hope 
both of Israel and of the world. This primitive hope 
was the common heritage of the race, but at length 
Israel became its custodian. Sometimes the Coming 
One was portrayed as the Redeemer, and sometimes as 
a conquerer; now as the suffering Servant, and again 
as the One who should rule the nations with a rod of 
iron. But the prophecies of the glorious King pre- 
dominated over those of the suffering Saviour. Even 
John the Baptist, last of the Old Testament prophets, 
proclaimed the Messiah as the one who should baptize 
not alone with the Holy Spirit, but with fire. Appar- 
ently John, in prison, was perplexed because Christ 
had not instituted this work of judgment and imme- 
diately set up His kingdom of glory. 

The Old Testament prophets were mystified con- 
cerning the sufferings of Christ and the glories that 
should follow them. The intervening dispensation of 
the Gospel was hidden from them. Yet the events 
which culminated in the judgment of the Cross were 
amply predicted. Matthew especially, writing for the 
Jews, constantly appealed to the prophets, who fore- 
told His virgin birth, named the town of His birth, 



THE CRISIS OF THE CROSS 89 

described His personal appearance, His miracles, sor- 
rows, rejection, crucifixion, burial, and even His res- 
urrection. All of these prophecies were fulfilled with 
a literalness of detail that is amazing, and furnish us 
with a key to prophecies that are still to be fulfilled. 
Yet when the time of the Redeemer's coming drew 
near, few men like Simeon, were "looking for the con- 
solation of Israel," and few women like Anna the 
prophetess, were "looking for the redemption of Jeru- 
salem." And concerning the return of Christ for judg- 
ment, Christ asked, "Nevertheless, when the Son of 
man cometh, shall he find the faith on the earth?" 
(Luke 18:8). Although that coming is even more 
fully foretold than was His first coming, there are 
prophecies in the New Testament which seem to indi- 
cate that to the world at large the return of Christ will 
be as unexpected and sudden as the Flood in the days 
of Noah. 

An Era of the Supernatural 

The epochal period of the Cross was even more 
marked than any of the preceding in its supernatural 
manifestations. Yet these were not in the nature of 
devastating judgments, but for the most part they 
revealed the mercy and the love of God. These mani- 
festations were chiefly associated with the life of one 
Person, Jesus of Nazareth, the Word become flesh. 
The message of God to the world at this period was 
too vitally important to be entrusted to any merely 
human being. There was no Abraham or Moses 



90 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

qualified, or who could be qualified, to accomplish the 
work now needful to be accomplished. This work was 
itself Divine and therefore one which only God could 
perform. God Himself must assume the human form 
in order to do for man the work that no man could do. 

"I AM COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN" (John 6:38). 

This is the explanation of the miracles of healing, 
of the masterful control over the forces of nature, of 
casting out demons, and of raising the dead. These 
were the natural expressions of the presence of God 
in the person of Jesus Christ. These were the works 
which the Father gave Christ to do for the purpose 
of substantiating His claims to Deity and accrediting 
His message. The words that Christ spake were not 
His own, but the Father's. 

But Christ Himself was the greatest miracle, the in- 
superable proof of the fact of the presence of God in 
this epochal period. He was God manifest in the flesh, 
and His entire career was strikingly unique. From 
the events associated with the announcement of His 
miraculous conception^ and birth, through all the crises 
of His life up to His own resurrection and ascension, 
we are conscious of beholding and conversing with 
Him of whom the apostles declared, "Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God." Add to these facts, 
in themselves surpassingly marvelous and convincing, 
the attestation of the Father speaking from heaven at 
the scenes of the Baptism and of the Transfiguration, 
and add also the descent of the Holy Spirit in bodily 
form to abide with Christ while upon earth and later 



THE CRISIS OF THE CROSS 91 

coming in pentecostal power to bear witness of Christ 
after He had returned to the Father, and who can 
honestly dispute the claims or deny the supernatural 
character of the Christ of God? 

Other events mark this period as everywhere tinged 
or replete with the supernatural. That heavenly choir 
which sang to the shepherds upon the Judean hillside 
upon the morning of the Messiah's birth was wholly 
out of the ordinary. Upon one occasion three of the 
apostles caught a genuine glimpse of that glory which 
Christ had with the Father before the world was. 
Years afterwards, with this undimmed vision in mind, 
Peter wrote, "For we did not follow cunningly devised 
fables, when we made known unto you the power and 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye- 
witnesses of his majesty * * * when we were 
with him in the holy mount" (2 Pet. 1 :i6-i8). 

Consider also the miraculous events connected with 
the crucifixion, when the midday sun for three hours 
hid its face in shame, when the earth shuddered in 
agony and the graves were opened and many saints 
came forth, and when the veil into the Most Holy 
Place of the Temple was rent from top to bottom. 
Then followed the Resurrection itself, in which the 
angels had an enviable part. Theirs to announce His 
coming into the world as a babe, theirs to roll away 
the stone from the sepulchre, and theirs to announce 
the return to life of the body that had been so highly 
dignified by the Eternal Word becoming flesh. 

Mysterious, too, were all the events connected with 



92 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

the post-resurrection manifestations of that body — its 
recognizable form and yet its inexplicable appearances 
and disappearances, and finally its complete vanishing 
from sight as with outstretched hands in blessing 
Christ returned to the Father from whence He came. 
In each of the preceding epochs there were unusual 
manifestations of the supernatural, but in the epoch 
of the Cross the supernatural was all-abounding, be- 
cause God had come down to the earth to give a fuller 
revelation of Himself to men. 

The Moral Condition of the World 

The moral condition of the world when Christ ap- 
peared was similar to that preceding the Flood, the 
building of Babel, and the judgments upon Egypt. 
It demanded Divine intervention. The polytheism of 
Rome was tolerant towards the introduction of in- 
numerable gods and goddesses from the conquered 
heathen nations, and the empire became full of divini- 
ties. The lives of the people were filled with count- 
less religious superstitions and immoral practices. 
Faith and purity had disappeared. Skepticism con- 
cerning God was an open boast even among those in 
the highest walks of life. Many taught that there was 
no future life and that suicide was the only way to end 
the miseries of present life. An overwhelming sense 
of despair seized those who were concerned but whose 
only hope was self-destruction. The race was an 
apostate race. The religious, political, social, domestic, 
and private life was utterly rotten. Seneca declared 



THE CRISIS OF THE CROSS 93 

that innocence had ceased to exist. The world was 
plunged into an abyss of depravity with no power to 
lift itself out. 

Tried by the Divine standards of righteousness man 
was a total failure. Even the Mosaic law possessed 
no power to make men righteous, for the Jews them- 
selves were little, if any, better than the Gentiles. 
Intended to be a "guide to the blind, a light to them 
that were in darkness," they practiced the same vices, 
and Paul charged that "the name of God is blasphemed 
among the Gentiles because of you" (Rom. 2:17-24). 
Truly the time was ripe for the appearance of the 
world's Deliverer, and "when the fullness of time came 
God sent forth his Son." There was no other Hope 
and no other Way by which God could retard the 
downward course of sin and reconcile the world unto 
Himself. 

Calvary Includes the World 

Attention has been called to the racial character of 
each of the epochal periods. However local the events 
in themselves, they are race-wide in intent. This 
characteristic is equally true of the period under con- 
sideration. Calvary was a very little spot, but it em- 
braced the world. He who made the world and who 
was rejected by the world, nevertheless bore the sins 
of the world and became the world's Saviour. His 
forerunner thus proclaimed Christ when he officially 
inducted Him into His public ministry at the time of 
His baptism : "Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh 



94 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

away the sin of the world !" Jesus Himself was con- 
scious of His world mission. The coming to Him 
of the Greeks was the precursor of the coming of all 
men to Him: "And I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all men unto myself" (John 12:32). 
He is to be the judge of the world's dead (John 5 :22). 
He also will judge the living nations (Matt. 25 :3i-46). 
Meanwhile His commission to His church is a world- 
wide commission (Matt. 28:19, 20). This commis- 
sion was based upon His Divine and absolute authority 
in heaven and on earth. There surely can be no ques- 
tion that the Crisis of the Cross was a world-crisis and 
the most important of all that are in the past. 

Calvary as a Scene of Judgment 

The Cross of Christ was so evidently a manifesta- 
tion of the incomparable grace of God that its judg- 
ment aspect is frequently overlooked. But no theory 
of the atonement is fully satisfactory which ignores 
its judicial features. As the Lamb of God who should 
bear away the sin of the world, Christ received in 
His own body the penalty of the world's sin. For 
Christ, the cross was pain of body, agony of mind, and 
the hiding of the Father's face. As the Second Adam, 
the Son of Man, and our Representative, He "bore 
our sins in His own body on the tree." Christ actually 
became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). Instead of deal- 
ing at that time with the apostate world in direct and 
fearsome judgments, God judicially judged the world 
in the person of His only begotten Son. Although 



THE CRISIS OF THE CROSS 95 

Calvary was the superlative exhibition of God's love, 
it also was a fearful scene of Divine judgment. Dur- 
ing the previous judgment periods God let fall His 
wrath upon sinners; but at this time He exhibited 
His love by indirectly judging men's sins through 
sending His Son to die in their stead (Rom. 8:3). 
Thus by one act He judged men's sins and also pro- 
vided a Saviour from sin. By that mysterious act 
God showed Himself "just and also the justifier of 
him that hath faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). 

Thus the Cross was both a scene of awful judg- 
ment and also of gracious salvation. It was indeed 
the hour in which the Son of Man should be glorified, 
but it was also an hour of judgment. "Now is the 
judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this 
world be cast out" (John 12:23, 31). The judgment 
first fell upon Him, as our representative, bearing the 
judicial penalty of our sins ; but it will also eventually 
fall upon Satan, "the prince of this world," through 
whom sin entered into the world and who is already 
under condemnation. For Christ the feverish pain, the 
pall of darkness, the separation from God. Truly was 
this a judgment scene ! None more awful in all history. 

The Second Dispersion 

But judgment for others there was, also. Although 
the world at large went free, not so 1 God's own chosen 
nation. So great was the light granted to them during 
the Mosaic Dispensation, and so great was their sin 
in crucifying the Lord of Glory, that God could not 



96 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

deal with them as He dealt with the Gentile world. 

The history of the Jews is both the most fascinating 
and the saddest. Exalted and favored as no other 
nation, but so perverse and so strangely and sorely 
punished! Christ "came to his own, but his own re- 
ceived him not." Jerusalem, city of the great King, 
knew not the hour of her visitation. Therefore Jeru- 
salem must pay the dreadful penalty : "And they shall 
fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive 
into all the nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden 
down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles 
be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). 

Such was the judgment that Christ pronounced 
upon the royal city, although the execution of the 
penalty was delayed for a few years. But this down- 
fall of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jews among 
all nations was the second dispersion. Like that of 
Babel, it was on account of rebellion against God. 
The Jewish leaders of Christ's day declared, "We will 
not have this man reign over us." And again, "We 
have no king, but Caesar." In contrast with the 
professed innocence of Pilate they exclaimed, "His 
blood be upon us and upon our children." And still 
dispersed throughout the world, the Jews of to-day 
are paying the penalty dearly. A nation branded with 
the curse of God since A. D. 70, they have been per- 
secuted, pillaged and plundered. Among the nations, 
yet separated from them, they are being preserved 
until the day when God shall regather them and bless 
them as a nation. 



THE CRISIS OF THE CROSS 97 

Christ's Conflict with Satan 

The birth of Christ was the beginning of a series 
of conflicts with Satan and the powers of darkness. 
The first of these conflicts was when Satan used his 
minion King Herod in the endeavor to kill the infant 
Jesus by slaughtering the babes in Bethlehem. Several 
times was the Child's life saved by Divine revelations. 
The attack of Satan was renewed after the public 
designation of Jesus by John the Baptist as the Com- 
ing One, when the Father spake to Him out of 
heaven, and when the Holy Spirit descended upon 
Him. Immediately there followed the forty days of 
temptation in the wilderness, which culminated in the 
three forms of temptation presented by Satan in per- 
son. Though defeated, Satan departed from Jesus 
only "for a season." Especially towards the close of 
Christ's earthly life did Satan renew his attacks. 
Once he made use of Peter. Ambitious Peter would 
dissuade Jesus from even thinking of the Cross, and 
thus brought upon himself a stinging rebuke: "Get 
thee behind me, Satan." Finally, the awful night 
preceding the crucifixion settled down about our Lord 
and His apostles. Already Judas had bargained to 
betray the Master, but during the Passover Feast and 
after the sop had been handed to Judas, John tells 
us, "then entered Satan into him." In the light of 
this statement the betrayer's kiss in the garden is no 
longer a mystery to us. But preceding this scene was 
the agony in Gethsemane with its sweat of blood. 



98 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

Was not this the final conflict with Satan? Satan 
did not wish Christ to be crucified and thus accomplish 
His redemptive work. But in each conflict Satan was 
defeated by the Second Adam. 

But another and a fiercer conflict still remains. The 
head of Satan has not yet been bruised (Gen. 3:15). 
During the present age the conflict continues to rage 
between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the 
Serpent ; neither will it terminate until the Great Red 
Dragon is cast out of heaven and begins his persecu- 
tion of the Symbolic Woman who gave birth to the 
Man-child (Rev. 12:13). This will prove to be the 
culmination of Satan's judgment, for the result of that 
conflict will be the confining of Satan in the Abyss 
for a thousand years, after which he will be destroyed 
(Rev. 20:1, 2, 10). 

Brevity of the Period 

So many events of far-reaching importance occurred 
during this epochal period that we should not forget 
into how short a space of time they were compressed. 
It is true that some thirty years were occupied in 
preparation for the culminating events, as in the days 
of Noah one hundred and twenty years were required 
for the building of the Ark; but we may limit the 
crisis of this epoch to probably less than three and a 
half years, beginning with the baptism of Christ and 
ending in His ascension. The Mosaic Dispensation, 
so far as God was concerned, ended at that moment 
of the crucifixion when the veil of the Temple was 



THE CRISIS OF THE CROSS 99 

rent in twain. This, too, was the beginning of the 
judgments upon the Jewish nation which culminated 
in the siege and overthrow of Jerusalem by the Romans 
under Titus. But whatever be the limits assigned to 
this period, the time was short in comparison with 
the Mosaic Dispensation which preceded, and with the 
Gospel Dispensation which has followed. It is only 
the comparative shortness that I wish to emphasize, 
for this is true of all the epochal periods — of that 
which comes next in order as well as of all those 
that are in the past. 

A New Dispensation 

Before leaving the earth Christ established a new 
covenant and instituted a new dispensation. Upon 
the night preceding His crucifixion, and at the close 
of the last Passover Feast, Christ "took a cup, and 
gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all 
of it; for this is my blood of the covenant, which 
is poured out for many unto remission of sins." Thus 
Christ became "the mediator of a better covenant" 
(Heb. 8:6). Under this covenant He is our High 
Priest of good things to come (Heb. 9:11). 

But this same Christ, appearing now in the presence 
of God for us, and having been once offered to bear 
the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart 
from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation 
(Heb. 9:24-28). The inspired apostle added to our 
Lord's words concerning the observance of the Lord's 
Supper, "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink 



100 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

this cup, ye proclaim the Lord's death till he come." 
The Church of Christ is still observing this Memorial 
Feast, for Christ has not yet reappeared from the 
Holy of Holies. His intercessions for us before the 
Father are not yet completed; but in due time Christ 
will be manifested, and the events connected with that 
manifestation are described, in the approaching epochal 
crisis, which is of vital interest to the people living 
in this Gospel Dispensation. 



c 

The Premillennial Crisis 



101 



The Approaching Epochal 
Crisis 



103 



THE APPROACHING EPOCHAL CRISIS 


1. 


A Matter of Personal Concern. 


2. 


Present Conditions. 


3. 


The Value of a Divine Revelation. 


4. 


The Testimony of Daniel and the Prophets. 


5. 


The Testimony of Christ. 


6. 


The Testimony of Paul. 


7. 


The Testimony of Peter. 


8. 


Will the Church Prevent the World's Corrup- 




tion? 


9. 


The Failure of Education. 


10. 


Civilization Sitting Upon a Volcano. 


11. 


The Approaching Descent of God. 



104 



THE APPROACHING 
EPOCHAL CRISIS 

AlyREADY the world has experienced five great 
epochal crises. The question now to be con- 
sidered is, Have we sufficient Scriptural war- 
rant for expecting that a like period, with all its dis~ 
tinguishing features, will terminate the dispensation in 
which we are now living and introduce a new dispen- 
sation ? If such be the case, and if it can be clearly- 
shown to the open-minded student of prophecy, we 
shall come to the study of that period with quickened 
interest. For if such a period, with all its supernatural 
judgments and interventions of God, should possibly 
be in the near future, we of this Age are not only 
interested to know what God has to say about it, but 
we should have a profound personal concern. We 
know what such periods have meant to the world in 
the preceding five great epochs. What then will be 
the outcome of that which we now are facing, if there 
be such an one? 

Present Conditions 

In these days of material progress, wide-spread 
culture, general education, marvelous scientific dis- 
coveries, mechanical inventions and appliances, one 
naturally hesitates to draw attention to the darkening 
picture painted for us by the inspired writers of 
105 



106 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

Scripture. Considering only the physical comforts of 
life we who enjoy the advantages of our occidental 
civilization are living upon a much higher plane than 
our ancestors. 

Outwardly society seems greatly improved. But 
shall the glamour of social and industrial advantages 
blind our eyes to the ever increasing Sunday traffic, 
travel, and pleasure-seeking, to increasing corruption 
in politics, to the growing drink bill, to the multiplying 
suicides and homicides, to the blasphemous white 
slave traffic, to the widening chasm between rich and 
poor, to the rumblings and mutterings of anarchy, 
and to the political aspirations of godless socialism? 
Though peace congresses and courts of arbitration are 
popular just now, shall we shut our eyes to the in- 
creasing size of our dreadnaughts and to the ever en- 
larging army and navy bills the world over? 

The Value of a Revelation 

All of these conditions, however, may be only tem- 
porary and passing phases of our civilization. No one 
can know God's mind fully who depends for his 
knowledge upon a study of the prevailing political, 
social or religious conditions. In fact, nobody can 
be wise with respect to the future acts of God beyond 
God's revealed will. God's plans for the world are 
matters not of speculation, but of revelation. History 
and science, human knowledge and education, do not 
fit one to foretell what God is going to do. Only as 
we believe what He has seen fit to reveal can we 



THE APPROACHING EPOCHAL CRISIS 107 

forecast the future with certainty. And is not the 
revelation of God this? — In spite of centuries of 
preaching the Gospel and of the free offer of sal- 
vation through faith in Jesus Christ, the world that 
crucified Christ will continue in sin, in the enjoy- 
ment of its jocund feasts, in mockery of the warnings 
of God, in lightly esteeming the blood of Christ, until 
it suddenly faces the wrath of the Lamb during the 
approaching epochal crisis. 

The Testimony of Daniel and the Prophets 

Without going fully into the testimony of the Old 
Testament a glance at the end times in Daniel will 
be of special value to us. For example, it was vividly 
made known to Nebuchadnezzar that "there is a God 
in heaven that revealeth secrets, and he hath made 
known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in 
the latter days" (Dan. 2:28). What now especially 
interests us is that the wonderful image which the 
king saw, would itself eventually be suddenly and 
totally destroyed. Afterwards the "Stone that smote 
the image became a great rock, and filled the whole 
earth." The inspired interpretation of the action of 
the Stone is that the God of heaven shall set up a 
kingdom that shall never be destroyed (Dan. 2:44). 
This result will be accomplished not gradually, but 
by the sudden destruction of Gentile supremacy, as 
symbolized by Nebuchadnezzar's great image. The 
entire description points to an epochal crisis in the 
history of the world, which occurs at the time of the 
end. 



108 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

Daniel's vision of the strange and diverse Beast 
with its ten horns, out of which came the powerful 
Little Horn, also brings before us a crisis period that 
shall terminate this age. "I beheld, and the same 
horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against 
them; until the ancient of days came, and judgment 
was given to the saints of the Most High, and the 
time came that the saints possessed the kingdom" 
(Dan. 7:21-22). The entire seventh chapter leads up 
to the end of the present dispensation, and to the re- 
turn of Christ to establish the Millennial kingdom. 

We learn also from Daniel, chapter 8, of a Little 
Horn who should prosper wonderfully, destroying 
mighty ones and the holy people, and even stand up 
against the Prince of princes; "but he shall be broken 
without hand." According to the Angel Gabriel, 
"the vision belongeth to the time of the end" — a time of 
war, turmoil and crisis. 

The last four chapters of Daniel also contain visions 
of the "time of the end," from which we know that 
it will be a period of unparalleled trouble for Israel 
and the world, of wrath and indignation, of judg- 
ments and deliverances. We scarcely can study these 
revelations given to Daniel without being impressed 
that God has His plans for the world definitely de- 
termined ; that despite the world's artilleries and arma- 
ments and its peace proposals, God's own kingdom 
will be established — not by the devices of men, but 
by His own supernatural intervention and power. 

The many prophecies in the Old Testament con- 



THE APPROACHING EPOCHAL CRISIS 109 

cerning an approaching world crisis by means of 
which an entirely new dispensation will be suddenly 
introduced and God's kingdom upon earth be estab- 
lished through Divine intervention and judgment, we 
have not the space to consider. But is it not significant 
that the Old Testament canon closes with the dread 
forecast of the coming of a day that "burnetii as a 
furnace"? (Mai. 4:1). This "great and terrible day 
of the Jehovah" (v. 5) has not yet come. The prophecy 
was in no sense fulfilled when Christ came as the 
meek and lowly One. Its fulfillment can be only when 
He comes as the Lion of the tribe of Judah and with 
the fury of the wrath of the Lamb. This shall be seen 
later. 

The Testimony of Christ 

But for our knowledge of the approaching crisis we 
are not confined to the revelations given through the 
Old Testament prophets. Our Lord foretold that the 
time of His return would be a time of crisis. Along- 
side of the spread of the Gospel will be the develop- 
ment of evil. The purpose of Christ's return to the 
earth will include judgment upon an apostate race. 
Before His earthly kingdom can be established the 
earth must be thoroughly renovated. Not only must 
all evils in society be summarily dealt with; not only 
must every enemy of righteousness be destroyed; not 
only must all hostility to Christ be ended; but Satan 
and all the hosts of evil spirits must be overcome. 
And this renovation of the earth will have to do not 



1 10 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

alone with men and demons, but will extend to the 
physical realms. The return of Christ will mark an- 
other acute stage in the world's history. It will be a 
time of cataclasm and catastrophe. 

Christ used several parables to characterize the end 
of this age. Take, for example, the Parable of the 
Tares. The tares are "the sons of the evil one." The. 
enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is 
the consummation of the age. The tares are then 
gathered up and burned with fire. Through the grace 
of God some of the tares may perhaps change their 
character and become "sons of the kingdom"; but 
there is no evidence whatsoever that all will do so. 
That the world will be converted before Christ returns 
to establish His kingdom is not the teaching of Scrip- 
ture. Instead of the world-field becoming weedless, 
the tares continue to grow side by side with the wheat 
until the harvest, which is the consummation of the 
age. Then will occur the separation of the evil from 
among the good, and judgment for the sons of Satan 
in the furnace of fire. 

Similar conditions at the end of this age are pic- 
tured for us in the Parable of the Drag Net which is 
cast into the sea and encloses both good and bad fishes. 
But the bad must be separated from the good and 
thrown away. "So shall it be in the consummation 
of the age : the angels shall come forth, and sever the 
wicked from among the righteous, and shall cast them 
into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and 
gnashing of teeth." 



THE APPROACHING EPOCHAL CRISIS 1 1 1 

These are scenes of what shall take place upon the 
earth. They deal with those living upon the earth at 
the end of the age. Personally, I question whether 
the Church comes into view here at all, as represented 
by the wheat and the good fish, but rather the saved 
seed who are to sow the millennial earth. The Church, 
as the mystical body of Christ, will have been removed 
from the earth prior to these judgments upon the living. 
Note that in these two parables the wicked are first 
separated out and burned, leaving behind the righteous. 

This is just the opposite of the removal of the 
Church from the earth, as promised by Paul. The 
purpose of the judgment that occurs at the end of 
this age is renovation of the earth. "The Son of man 
shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out 
of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and 
them that do iniquity." All of which indicates a 
crisis in the affairs of men tlien living on the earth. 

Our Lord further graphically portrayed the ap- 
proaching crisis by likening the end of this age to the 
end of the Antediluvian Age. "And as it came to pass 
in the days of Noah, even so shall it be also in the 
days of the Son of man." Now, as then, the world is 
preoccupied, unconcerned, busy with its cares and its 
frivolities, with its businesses and its social functions, 
absorbed with its commerce and culture and crime, 
all unaware that the Day of the Lord will burst 
upon it. 

When questioned by His disciples concerning the 
sign of His coming and the end of the age Christ 



112 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

mentioned wars, famines and earthquakes as only the 
beginning of travail (Matt. 24:8). Following these 
should be tribulation, hatred, apostacy, falsity, abound- 
ing iniquity. The tribulation would be the greatest 
that the world should ever know. Jerusalem will be 
the center of this tribulation, and immediately follow- 
ing it the powers of heaven shall be shaken and the 
sign of the Son of Man shall appear in heaven; and 
then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn ' (Matt. 
24:29-31). 

These events belong to the future. Christ has never 
yet so come. There never has been such a tribulation 
followed by the personal return of Christ. This great 
tribulation is unquestionably the one mentioned in the 
Revelation, chapter 7, and characterizes the acute 
epochal crisis which the world is now facing. 

The Testimony of Paul 

When the Apostle Paul writes of the ushering in of 
the Day of the Lord he does not describe it as heralded 
by the glorious progress of the Gospel, but as coming 
like a thief in the night, when those of the night are 
asleep or drunken (1 Thess. 5:2). Again Paul says 
that when men in the blindness of their vanity and un- 
belief shall be boasting of "peace and safety," then sud- 
den destruction cometh upon them. It will not matter 
whether that peace be secured by armaments or by ar- 
bitration. It will not hold. There can be no lasting 
peace in society and among nations so long as men are 
warring against God. The controversy with God must 



THE APPROACHING EPOCHAL CRISIS 1 1 3 

first be settled. But from the nature of the case this 
controversy can not have a peaceable settlement, for 
men will not accept God's conditions. Therefore Paul 
declares that this age will end with the revelation of 
the Lord Jesus from heaven to render "vengeance to 
them that know not God, and to them that obey not 
the gospel" (2 Thess. 1:7, 8). These two classes, 
the ignorant and the disobedient, probably will be in 
the majority when Christ returns, as they are today. 
This lurid picture of the Lord Jesus in flaming fire 
to render vengeance upon them is quite unlike the one 
that modern false prophets are accustomed to paint, 
who think only of the glorious triumphs of the Gospel 
and ignore its sad defeats. 

Paul's vision of the closing days of this age, as 
given to Timothy, is a vision of perilous, or grievous, 
times. Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, not 
lovers of good, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of 
God (2 Tim. 3:1-5). Glorification of self, worship 
of mammon, gross demoralization, passion for amuse- 
ment rather than devotion to God ! Such is the end of 
the age towards which the world is madly careening, 
and which will culminate in the Day of Wrath and 
the perdition of ungodly men. When the crop of evil 
seeds sown in the world-field by Satan is fully 
matured, can it fail to precipitate a crisis? 

The Testimony of Peter 

Peter's vision of the end of the age does not differ 
from Paul's : "Knowing this first, that in the last days 



1 14 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their 
own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his 
coming?" (2 Pet. 3:3, 4). They will have pinned 
their faith to an imperfect human logic, being willful 
forgetters of past history. Peter reminds all such of 
the destructive flood of old and warns them of coming 
judgment upon the world (vv. 5-7). God's word 
shall not fail. The Day of the Lord will come as a 
thief (v. 10), taking the unready world by surprise. 

Will the Church Prevent the World's Corruption 

Many who are weak in the faith deny the possibility 
of an approaching crisis, and point to the vast up- 
lifting influence of the Church, and claim that there 
are enough good people in the world to prevent its 
corruption. So long as the Church remained pure it 
was indeed "the salt of the earth," the great preserva- 
tive of society. But the Church is no longer pure. 
The majority of its members are actuated by worldly 
maxims and selfish pursuits. The Church has become 
so much like the world that it has lost much of its in- 
fluence with the world. Her days of power were her 
days of separation, poverty and deep piety. Taking a 
world-view of the spiritual condition of the Church, 
including the Romish, Greek and Reformation 
branches, may we not question whether the world has 
not corrupted the Church, instead of the Church having 
Christianized the world? But even had the Church 
remained pure the corruption of the world could not 
have been fully prevented, for the time is coming when 



THE APPROACHING EPOCHAL CRISIS 115 

the Church will have been taken out of the world (i 
Thess. 4:15-17). Corruption then must necessarily 
and speedily follow. 

The Failure of Education 

Our modern philanthropists are giving more to edu- 
cation than to any other object. Endowing schools 
and colleges and building libraries is quite a fad with 
the rich. Their panacea for the salvation of the world 
is education. But though education of the right sort 
tends to control the passions of men it does not eradi- 
cate them nor change the disposition. No criminal is 
so bad as an educated criminal. The illiterate men 
who filled our penitentiaries fifty years ago have given 
place to men who read and write, many of whom are 
college graduates. Cultured Greece was a corrupt 
Greece. Education is not salvation. Darkness within 
the soul is not dispelled by pressing an electric light 
button. A highly civilized world may still be a doomed 
world. 

The civilization of today rests largely upon greed 
and force, instead of upon grace and faith. Through 
greed we are growing rich, and through force we are 
striving to keep our riches. The feverish haste of the 
nations to increase their armaments only instances their 
distrust of one another and their desire to get and to 
keep. And this spirit among the nations is inspired 
by the individual citizens. Bismarck was not far 
wrong when he said that modern European civilization 
was sitting upon a volcano. If living now, would he 



116 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

not have included the world? Nobody knows when 
the volcano may become active. 

The Approaching Descent of God 

In these days when every event of Christ's life upon 
earth is being microscopically examined and criticised, 
and when the great facts of His earthly life are being 
boldly assailed and denied, we should not be surprised 
that a waning belief in the personal return of Christ to 
the earth is prevalent. We should not be surprised for 
this condition of unbelief was prophesied by Peter 
(2 Pet. 3:4). Just as the resurrection of Christ from 
the grave is held by some to have been only a spiritual 
resurrection and did not include the resurrection of 
His body, so also some are saying that the coming 
again of Christ to the earth is only a spiritual return 
instead of a personal and visible return. 

Let us recall that each of the great Bible crisis 
periods of the past has been marked by the personal 
presence of God upon the earth. Sometimes, if not al- 
ways, this presence of God was visible, as when God 
appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and also when 
He descended in fire upon Mount Sinai in the sight 
of all the people (Ex. 19:11, 18). 

Likewise during the Premillennial crisis will be ful- 
filled the vision of John : "Behold, he cometh with the 
clouds; and every eye shall see him" (Rev. 1:7). 
Christ will come down out of heaven to the earth in 
visible form. John saw also in Apocalyptic vision the 
heaven opened and Jesus as King of Kings and Lord 



THE APPROACHING EPOCHAL CRISIS 1 1 7 

OF Lords descending in judgment to the earth fRev. 
19:11-16). 

The foregoing fully harmonizes with Christ's own 
prophecies: "For the Son of man shall come in the 
glory of his Father with his angels" (Matt. 16:27). 
"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in 
heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, 
and they shall see the Son of man coming on the 
clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 
24:30). "Henceforth ye shall see the Son of man 
sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the 
clouds of heaven" (Matt. 26:64). 

These are but several of Christ's prophecies of His 
return to the earth. The Apostle Paul's very definite 
declaration to the Thessalonians is illuminating: "For 
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
the trump of God" (1 Thess. 4:16). 

Slowly the crops of good and evil are ripening for 
the harvest which ends our own dispensation. The 
wheat and tares will be separated. This is not the 
work of men. God will supervise the harvesting. 
Christ will descend from heaven and direct the win- 
nowing judgments. This approaching descent of God 
to the earth creates the climax of the Pre millennial 



II 

The Wrath of Satan 



119 



THE WRATH OF SATAN 


1. 


The Necessity of Having a Knowledge of 
Satan. 


2. 


Satan's Enmity. 


3. 


War in Heaven Against Satan. 


4. 


Satan Deceiver of Men. 


5. 


Having Great Wrath. 


6. 


Satan's Wrath Against the Jews. 


7. 


Satan's Wrath Against the Gentiles. 


8. 


Satan's Chief Executioners of Wrath. 


9. 


Satan Helped by Demons. 


10. 


Satanic Imperialism. 



120 



THE WRATH 
OF SATAN 

A THOROUGH understanding of the character 
of Satan and a knowledge of his career are 
necessary to a grasp of approaching events. 
The crass ignorance that prevails concerning the teach- 
ing of Scripture as to the origin and destiny of Satan, 
concerning his audacious ambitions and his wiles to 
achieve them, and concerning his supernatural wisdom 
and power, is truly appalling. Few seem to realize 
that Satan has an organized kingdom of spiritual hosts 
of wickedness in the heavenly places, against which we 
now are warring. Not understanding these things 
many devout believers are being led far astray, both 
as to the course of this present age and as to its con- 
summation, which latter we now are considering. Many 
Christians are acting as though Satan was already 
bound and not a present antagonist. In consequence 
men are deceived by his counterfeits and blandish- 
ments and hypocrisies. 

Satan's Enmity 

After the unveiling to the Apostle John of the 
events of the approaching crisis as viewed externally 
(Rev. 6-1 1 ), the chief actors and leading personalities 
in the great drama are disclosed in chapters 12 to 14 
of the Apocalypse. In the twelfth chapter the prin- 
121 



122 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

cipal character is Satan. First comes the vision of the 
Mystical Woman travailing in birth and in pain to be 
delivered. This is followed by the sign of the Great 
Red Dragon standing before the woman in order to 
devour her child at the moment of birth. But the 
Man Child, "who is to rule all nations with a rod of 
iron," was caught up to the throne of God, and the 
Woman fled to her place of refuge in the wilderness. 

We have here one of those marvelous condensations 
of history for which the Bible is noted. It reminds 
us of the opening verses of Genesis and of the Gospel 
according to John. The Mystical Woman probably is 
Israel, whom Micah represents as travailing and bring- 
ing forth Him whose goings forth are from of old, 
from everlasting (Mic. 4:10; 5:2). And the Man 
Child surely is Christ, the universal King, who ascend- 
ed to the right hand of the throne of God. The Blood- 
red Dragon, who sought the life of the Child through 
his minion Herod, is afterwards designated as Satan. 
Thus in these opening visions of the chapter Satan is 
prominent as the enemy of the Seed of the Woman. 
According to the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 this en- 
mity will not cease until Satan's head is bruised. But 
since the Seed of the Woman, the Man Child, escaped 
the power of Satan he turned his attention to the perse- 
cution of the Woman herself. This enmity of Satan 
against Christ and Israel will culminate in the next 
epochal crisis, which will be "the time of Jacob's 
trouble." 



THE WRATH OF SATAN 123 

War in Heaven Against Satan 

The popular conception of Satan is that he is now 
in hell, but instead he is at the head of a kingdom in 
the heavenly places and has access to God. Hence 
the necessity of our putting on the whole armour 
of God (Eph. 6:12, 13). Also Paul refers to Satan 
as "the prince of the power of the air." The state- 
ment in Revelation 12:4 that "his tail draweth the 
third part of the stars of heaven" may possibly refer 
to the original apostacy of Satan and the company of 
angels who at that time! fell with him. Anyway it in- 
timates the vast influence of Satan on high. 

But the reign of Satan in the upper air, having ac- 
cess both to heaven and to earth, is some day to end. 
Just what event will date the ejection of Satan is 
not clearly revealed. Possibly it may be the descent of 
Christ into the air for His Church (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). 
The glorious removal of the Church will certainly be 
an opportune time for Satan to attempt to firmly es- 
tablish his world kingdom and to secure the world's 
worship. 

But not without a death struggle will Satan sur- 
render his present sway in the heavenly places. He 
must be forcibly ejected from his present throne. This 
is the task set for Michael and his angels, who shall 
go forth to war against the Dragon and his angels and 
shall overcome them. "Neither was their place found 
any more in heaven" (Rev. 12:8). This defeat in 
heaven at the hands of Michael is the prelude to Satan's 
final defeat upon earth at the descent of Christ Him- 
self. 



124 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 
Satan, Deceiver of Men 

The Blood-red Dragon who will be dethroned and 
cast down to the earth is designated by such names 
and terms that we cannot mistake who he is — "the old 
serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the de- 
ceiver of the whole world." Many in these days are 
so badly deceived that they deny even the existence of 
the Devil. There are others whose minds the god of 
this age hath blinded, "that the light of good news of 
the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should 
not dawn upon them." Satan, "deceiver of the whole 
world" ! First, it was Adam and Eve, and afterwards 
all their descendants, save One. Christ alone recog- 
nized Satan and defeated him. 

But Satan is a perfect counterfeiter. He does not 
pose as a scoundrel, but as a saint. He is not repul- 
sive, but attractive. He is no atheist, but a believer 
in God. Paul says that "Satan fashioneth himself into 
an angel of light." Such is not his real character, for 
his kingdom is a kingdom of darkness. But at the last 
Satan will not rely either upon personal charms or base 
seductions to deceive men, but rather upon the spectacu- 
lar and the supernatural. Paul informs us that the 
coming of the Man of Sin, the Antichrist, will be "ac- 
cording to the working of Satan with all power and 
signs and lying wonders, with all deceit of unrighteous- 
ness for them that perish" (2 Thess. 2:9, 10). By 
undisputed miracles will Satan at the last be aided in 
his quest for the world's worship and dominion. But 
more of this later. 



THE WRATH OF SATAN 125 

Having Great Wrath 

The ejection of Satan from his throne in the heaven- 
ly places will precipitate a crisis upon the earth. The 
rejoicing in heaven over the victory of Michael and his 
angels will be followed by a greater victory upon the 
earth: "Now is come the salvation, and the power, 
and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his 
Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, 
who accuseth them before our God day and night" 
(Rev. 12:10). Satan is our archenemy, and the 
momentary rejoicing in heaven will not preclude suf- 
fering for those still upon the earth: "Woe for the 
earth and for the sea: because the devil is gone down 
unto you, having great wrath" (12:12). Aware of 
the impending crisis, the terrible wrath of Satan, so 
long restrained, will be let loose in all its fury against 
the people of God, hoping to prevent the Millennial 
Kingdom of Christ from being established. The 
bloody trail of this wrath we shall now follow. 

Wrath Against the Jews 

The first to feel the bitterness of Satan's wrath will 
be the Jews. The prince of Daniel 9 '.26, 27 will make 
a "firm covenant with them for one week: and in the 
midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the 
oblation to cease." This week is the last of the seventy 
which were decreed against the Jews and the Holy 
City "to finish transgression, and to make an end of 
sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to 
bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up 



126 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy" 
(Dan. 9:24). The breaking of the covenant, followed 
probably by the profaning of the sanctuary and the 
setting up of the abomination that maketh desolate 
to which Daniel and Christ referred, will doubtless 
cause a revolt of the Jews which will precipitate their 
final and fiercest persecution. 

"And when the dragon saw that he was cast down 
to the earth, he persecuted the woman that brought 
forth the man child" (Rev. 12:13). Persecution of 
the Jews is thus the initial step of Satan after being 
cast down to the earth. Jerusalem will be the center 
of this persecution. "And the court which is without 
the temple leave without, and measure it not; for it 
hath been given unto the nations: and the holy city 
shall they tread under foot forty and two months" 
(Rev. 11:2). Clearly apprehending what is before 
him Satan is especially bitter towards her from whom 
Christ came. But God has a place prepared for her 
(12:6, 14). 

Wrath Against the Gentiles 

Unable to destroy the woman in the wilderness 
Satan returns "to make war with the rest of her seed, 
that keep the commandments of God, and hold the tes- 
timony of Jesus" (Rev. 12:17). This seems to in- 
clude Gentiles as well as Jews. Not the Jews only, 
but they in any portion of the earth who shall refuse 
to obey and worship Satan; for the Beast out of the 
earth will have the power to "cause that as many as 



THE WRATH OF SATAN 127 

should not worship the image of the first beast should 
be killed" (13:15). Doubtless many martyrdoms will 
result. Indeed the opening of the Fifth Seal reveals 
the "souls of them that had been slain for the word 
of God, and for the testimony which they held." 
Many will be victors because they "loved not their 
life even unto death" (Rev. 12:11). 

Satan's Chief Executioners of Wrath 

Satan will not be lacking in powerful agents for 
the carrying out of his designs and for the executing 
of his wrath against those who oppose him. Reference 
already has been made to his miracles. But two agents 
in human form demand our special attention. These 
are his political and ecclesiastical representatives. The 
first is the Beast coming out the sea. He is at the head 
•of a confederacy, and upon his seven heads are names 
of blasphemy (13:1, 2). Thus is his character at 
once revealed to us, and we ought not to be startled 
when further informed that "the dragon gave him his 
power, and throne, and great authority" (v. 2). He 
is the chief political representative of Satan, and when 
the death stroke of his seventh head is healed the 
whole world will wonder "after the beast; and they 
worshipped THE dragon, because he gave his au- 
thority to the beast; and they worshipped the beast" 
(vv. 3, 4). Thus will Satan finally, for a brief period, 
secure the world's worship. 

But another Beast is to come out of the earth, re- 
sembling a lamb but speaking like a dragon (13:11). 



128 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

In addition to having all of the authority of the first 
Beast he has also miracle-working power, by which 
men will be deceived. His special mission will be to 
make obligatory the worship of the image of the first 
Beast, which in reality is the worship of Satan. The 
only alternative will be death (13:15). Here again 
we see the hand of Satan, who is "a murderer from 
the beginning." There will be no escaping the issue, 
for Satan's followers will be branded plainly as such 
by the mystic number of the Beast (vv. 16, 17). It 
will be a time of fearful decision. In those days an 
omnious warning will be sent from heaven : "If any 
man worshippeth the beast and his image, and receiveth 
a mark on his forehead, or upon his hand, he also shall 
drink of the wine of the wrath of God" (Rev. 14:9, 
10). Many no doubt will heed the solemn warning 
and will choose Christ instead of Satan. 

Satan Helped by Demons 

It was the teaching of Christ that demons were a 
part of the kingdom of Satan (Luke 11 :i4-i8). They 
are his secret agents and were especially active during 
the period of our Lord's earthly ministry. Though 
constantly at work the close of this age will be marked 
by their intensified activity. "And I saw coming out 
of the mouth of THE dragon, and out of the mouth 
of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false 
prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs: for 
they are the spirits of demons, working signs" (Rev. 
16:13, 14). Being sign-workers, like the False 



THE WRATH OF SATAN 129 

Prophet, they are fully equipped for their baneful mis- 
sion. They "go forth unto the kings of the whole 
world, to gather them together unto the war of the 
great day of God, the Almighty." Their audacious 
mission will prove successful, and thus the closing con- 
flict of the end of the age will be hastened. But the 
wrath of Satan will work his own defeat and also 
cause the annihilation of the allied armies. 

Satanic Imperialism 

Satan's ambition to be the recognized sovereign of 
the world is to have a brief realization. In the per- 
son of his representative he is to obtain "authority 
over every tribe and people and tongue and nation" 
(Rev. 13:7). This dominion was what Satan once 
offered to Christ in return for His worship. It was no 
idle offer. Finally the monster will be found who will 
wholly surrender himself and become an incarnation 
of Satan. Then, with a wisdom unmatched by that 
of any mere man, and under the personal direction 
of Satan, an imperialism will be established that shall 
embrace the world. But it will be established only 
through wrath and force and bloodshed. "And it was 
given unto him to make war with the saints, and to 
overcome them" (v. 7). None shall be able to with- 
stand him. 

But while Satan for a short period is to dominate 
the worship and the politics of the world, some think 
this is especially true of the territory embraced under 
the imperialism of ancient Rome. However this may 



130 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

be we are given another vision of the Beast from the 
sea in chapter 17 of the Apocalypse. This time he 
is a "scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, 
having seven heads and ten horns," which identify him 
with the Dragon (12:3). This Beast "was, and is 
not ; and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to 
go into perdition" (17:8), and is thus identified also 
with the Beast of chapter 13, whose "death stroke was 
healed." After his resurrection, and during the super- 
natural period of his reign, the ten horns receive 
authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour. These 
have one mind, and they give their kingdom unto 
the beast, until the words of God should be accom- 
plished (17:13-17). But these same kings shall later 
become instruments of wrath against the Woman who 
rides the Beast, and will accomplish her destruction 
(v. 16). But in so doing they go contrary to their 
own character, for "God did put in their hearts to 
do his mind." They will become a boomerang for 
Satan, for thus will "BABYLON THE GREAT, 
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE 
ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH," be destroyed 
(17:5, 18). Thus the wrath of Satan will be com- 
pelled to aid in accomplishing the wrath of God. 

Summary 

We have seen that the wrath of Satan against men 
will be fearful in its workings. Though limited to 
only a brief period of time, such is his power, so 
crafty is he, so efficient his agents, both men and 



THE WRATH OF SATAN 131 

demons, that the terrors which result are appalling 
to consider. Ambitious to be equal to God, covetous 
of this world as his usurped realm, Satan will use 
his supernatural power to perpetuate his kingdom 
among men. The entire account of the execution of 
Satan's wrath impresses us with an overwhelming 
sense of the folly of resistance. At the present time 
by wiles and fair promises he entices and ensnares 
men. But when cast down from heaven to earth dur- 
ing the approaching crisis, knowing that his days are 
numbered, he will throw off all disguise and give full 
sway to the fury of his wrath in the vain attempt to 
retain the sceptre of the world. They in heaven know 
what this will mean to the inhabitants of the earth 
and shout their warning cry of "Woe for the earth 
and for the sea." 



Ill 

The Wrath of the Lamb 



133 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB 



1. The Prophecies of John the Baptist Will Be 

Fulfilled. 

2. Christ's Twofold Mission. 

3. The Day of Wrath. 

4. Paul Upon the Wrath of God. 

5. The Lamb's Wrath as Revealed to John. 

6. Repetition of Judgment Scenes. 

7. Physical Agencies of the Lamb's Wrath. 

8. Angels as Agents of Christ's Wrath. 

9. The Two Witnesses. 

10. The Locusts from the Abyss. 

11. The Euphratean Army. 

12. The Personal Execution of the Lamb's Wrath. 

13. Some Results. 

14. Defense of the Wrath of the Lamb. 



134 



THE WRATH OF 
THE LAMB 

WHEN John the Baptist, last of the Old 
Testament prophets, sought to prepare the 
way for the coming of Christ he unspar- 
ingly proclaimed, "Ye offspring of vipers, who hath 
warned you to flee from the wrath To come?" His 
message was solely a call to repentance in view of the 
coming of One "whose fan is in his hand, and he will 
thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor; and he will 
garner his wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will 
burn up with unquenchable fire." In company with 
all of his predecessors John the Baptist failed to clearly 
foresee that the Christ must suffer before He should 
reign. The present Day of Grace also was hidden 
from their eyes and not revealed until the time of 
Paul (Eph. 3:1-5). Yet John the Baptist was not 
mistaken as to the fact that Christ was to come in 
judgment. His prediction of the work of Christ was 
true, but not exhaustive. The only thing not clear 
was the time when that judgment should take place. 
But we know the time, for Christ designated it to be 
the harvest time, which is the end of the age (Matt. 
13:39, 40). At that season the prophecy of John the 
Baptist will come true. 

Christ's Twofold Mission 

Christ endeavored to establish His earthly kingdom 
135 



136 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

by peaceable methods. By preaching the good news 
of the kingdom of God, by healing the sick and mak- 
ing men physically whole, by raising the dead, by 
casting out demons, by doing all manner of wonderful 
works, He sought to win the sinning nation to Him- 
self. He proclaimed the "acceptable year of the Lord," 
but the Jewish nation failed to recognize the day of 
their visitation. When Christ claimed that His 
ministry was the fulfillment of Isaiah 61 :2 He stopped 
at a comma. Why did He not quote! the entire verse? 
Because His peaceable mission of mercy was in no 
sense "the day of vengeance of our God." This is 
what seems to have perplexed John while in prison. 
Why was not Christ doing the work that John had 
predicted? Why did He not at once establish His 
earthly kingdom by the use of force? This He will 
need to do, for the Day of Vengeance will surely 
come. In that day His garments will be dyed in 
blood, but not His own. When inquired of concern- 
ing this He replied, "I have trodden the winepress 
alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: 
yea, I trod them in mine anger, and trampled them in 
my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my 
garments, and I have stained all my raiment. For the 
day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of 
my redeemed is come" (Isa. 63:3, 4). That this 
prophecy is to have its fulfillment we learn from Reve- 
lation 19: 13-15, which passage ends with the words, 
"and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of 
the wrath of God, the Almighty." 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB 137 

The Day of Wrath 

We are now further to consider this Day of Ven- 
geance, or Day of Wrath. We shall see that it is 
an earthly judgment, or series of judgments, and of 
brief duration. It is not distinct from The Great 
Tribulation, but rather includes it. The Gospel Age 
will end in glory, but a glory due not alone to the 
gradual spread of the Gospel. Christ will return, but 
His coming will be signalized by wrath as well as 
mercy. The Second Psalm tells us that when the 
time comes to establish the earthly kingdom of Christ 
God will speak to the rebellious nations in His wrath. 
The entire noth Psalm, which is strikingly Messianic 
and descriptive of the King's reign, mentions the time 
when the Lord "will strike through kings in THE day 
of his wrath." Elsewhere in the Old Testament we 
have many details of that dread day. Take, for ex- 
ampfe, a single verse from Isaiah (13:13) : "There- 
fore I will make the heavens to tremble, and the earth 
shall be shaken out of its place, in the wrath of 
Jehovah of hosts, and in the day op his fierce 
angER." An examination of the diagram on the follow- 
ing page, setting forth the Day of Wrath as described 
in the Apocalypse, may help to a clearer comprehension 
of the wrath of the Lamb as given in prophetic visions. 

Paul upon the Wrath of God 

Although Paul greatly emphasized the grace and 
mercy of God, he also had much to say about the 



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THE WRATH OF THE LAMB 139 

wrath of God. Not only did he preach the revela- 
tion of the righteousness of God for such as would 
be saved, but also the revelation of the wrath of 
God against the ungodly and the unrighteous (Rom. 
1:18). Through the exercise of His goodness God 
would save men ; but for the impenitent there is "wrath 
in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous 
judgment of God" (Rom. 2:5). For some there is 
eternal life; but for those who obey not the truth 
shall be "wrath and indignation, tribulation and 
anguish" (vv. 8, 9). Writing to the Ephesians Paul 
teaches that we all are "by nature children of wrath" 
(2 13). Only in Christ can we become children of God 
and escape the execution of His righteous wrath. And 
Paul praised the Christians at Thessalonica because 
they were waiting the Son from heaven, "even Jesus, 
who delivereth us from the wrath to come." In the 
same epistle he makes special mention of God's wrath 
against the Jews (1 Thess. 2:16). 

But the period depicted as the Day of Wrath, which 
is chiefly for the living, will be signalized by the per- 
sonal return of Christ. Paul regarded this event as 
a possibility in his own day, and it has been a possi- 
bility in every generation since. In his second letter 
to the Thessalonians he writes, "And to you that are 
afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord 
Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in 
flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know 
not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our 
Lord Jesus" (1:7, 8). This execution of "eternal 



140 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

destruction from the face of the Lord and from the 
glory of his might, when he shall come" (vv. 9, 10), 
helps us to locate the Day of Wrath. Its proper 
sphere is this sin-cursed earth. Still rebellious and 
disobedient it awaits its awful doom from the coming 
Christ. 

The Lamb's Wrath as Revealed to John 

In his Gospel John presents Jesus as "the Lamb of 
God, that taketh away the sin of the world." But 
when the Day of Salvation has ended an entirely dif- 
ferent view of Christ in relation to the world is given 
by John: "And the kings of the earth, and the 
princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the 
strong, and every bondman and freeman, hid them- 
selves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains ; 
and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall 
on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth 
on the throne, and from the wrath op The Lamb : 
for the great day of their wrath is come ; and who is 
able to stand?" (Rev. 6:15-17). 

This dread Day of Wrath also is described under 
each of the other series of judgments in the Apo- 
calypse; and each reference is to the closing scenes of 
this age and the introduction of the next. Under the 
Seventh Trumpet the Four and Twenty Elders give 
thanks unto the Lord God because the "nations were 
wroth and thy wrath came." In the fourteenth 
chapter, when the Lamb is seen standing on the mount 
Zion, the angel with the eternal good tidings to pro- 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB 141 

claim announces with a great voice to them that dwell 
on the earth, "Fear God, and give him glory ; for The 
hour OF his judgment is come." And a third angel 
proclaims the doom of any would-be follower of the 
Antichrist, with the words., "He also shall drink of 
THE wine OE The wrath, OE God, which is prepared 
unmixed in the cup of his anger." This same chap- 
ter closes with the reaping of the earth's harvest and 
the gathering of the earth's vintage. Each is a scene 
belonging to the closing days of the age. The angel 
that gathered the vintage of the earth "cast it into 

THE WINEPRESS, THE GREAT, OE THE WRATH OE GOD." 

The fifteenth chapter opens with a sign in heaven, 
"great and marvelous, seven angels having seven 
plagues, the last, for in them is Finished the wrath 
oe god." These seven angels are given "seven golden 
bowls Fule OE the wrath oE god." They are then 
commanded, "Go ye, and pour out the seven bowls 
of the wrath of God into the earth" (16:1). The 
earth, the sea, the rivers, the sun, the throne of the 
Beast, the Euphrates, and the air, are all affected and 
sorely afflicted by these dire judgments of God, and 
special mention is also made of her who seduced all 
the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her 
fornication (14:8): "And Babylon the great was 
remembered in the sight of God, To give her The 

CUP OE THE WINE OE THE FIERCENESS OF HIS WRATh" 
(16:19). 



142 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

Repetition of the Judgment Scenes 

Just here it may be well to call attention to the 
parallelism between the different judgment series of 
the Apocalypse. For example, the plagues just re- 
ferred to are said to be the last, but in chapters 17, 
18 and 19 there are other judgment scenes. Also 
some of the events contained in the Seven Bowls of 
Wrath were already referred to in the preceding 
visions. When we take up the time element in the 
approaching crisis we shall see that these series of 
judgment refer not to different events, separated by 
long intervals of time, but that all of these descrip- 
tions of the wrath of God would seem to refer to a 
single period of time, namely, the close of this age, 
when Christ returns for judgment. 

The Physical Agencies of the Wrath of the Lamb 

The opening of the Sixth Seal graphically portrays 
astounding disturbances both in the earth and the 
heaven : "And there was a great earthquake ; and the 
sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole 
moon became as blood; and the stars of the heaven 
fell unto the earth, as a fig tree casteth her unripe 
figs when she is shaken of a great wind. And the 
heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up; 
and every mountain and island were moved out of 
their places." 

Our Lord Himself said that preceding His re- 
turn "the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB 143 

not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, 
and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken." We 
are reminded of the warning and prophecy quoted in 
the Epistle to the Hebrews : "Whose voice then shook 
the earth; but now he hath promised, saying, Yet 
once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, 
but also the heaven" (12:26). Also in the Trumpets 
and Vials of Wrath mention is made of hail and fire, 
of thunders and lightnings, of intensified heat of the 
sun, followed by the darkening of sun, moon and 
stars, of waters turned to blood, and of unparalleled 
earthquakes. Is it any wonder that men's hearts will 
fail them? Or that in their frenzy they should not 
recognize the futility of crawling into the caves and 
holes of the quaking earth? The terrors of the great 
Day of God's wrath have taken hold upon them, and 
they cry out, "Who is able to stand?" 

Angels as Agents of Christ's Wrath 

The Lamb in His wrath will make use not alone 
of the elements and forces of nature, as variously and 
vividly portrayed in the Scripture. Angels will have 
an important part to play. In connection with the 
Trumpets and the Vials theirs is the leading part. 
They first come prominently into view in the sound- 
ing of the Seven Trumpets by the seven angels that 
stand before God (Rev. 8:2). And these judgment 
trumpets are preceded by another angel, with a golden 
censer. This he filled with fire from the altar and 
cast the fire upon the earth; "and there followed 



144 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and an earth- 
quake." But especially do we see the prominence of 
the part taken by angels in connection with the seven 
last plagues as described in chapters 15 and 16. These 
are simply illustrations. Throughout the Apocalypse 
the part assigned to the angels is a prominent one. 
Thus we see that the angels may not only act as 
ministering spirits to those who shall inherit salva- 
tion, but also become active agents in administering 
the wrath of God towards the rejecters of salvation. 

The Two Witnesses 

But God has other unusual agents for the accom- 
plishing His wrath. Take, for example, the Two Wit- 
nesses of the eleventh chapter of the Revelation. They 
shall have power to dry up the clouds, power to turn 
water into blood, power to smite the earth with 
plagues, not once only, but "as often as they shall 
desire." This may be only locally. But not until 
they have finished their testimony shall the Beast that 
comes out of the Abyss have power to kill them. 

The Locusts from the Abyss 

By far the wierdest agencies of the wrath of the 
Lamb are described under the judgments of the first 
and second Woe Trumpets (chapter 9). The star 
from heaven is probably another angel, to whom is 
given the commission to open the pit of the Abyss. 
Many strange and absurd interpretations have been 
given to the singular swarm of locusts that issues from 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB 145 

the Abyss. But in vain do we go beyond the revealed 
word. Real locusts are described; but so unlike any 
others are they, and their work so unusual, that it is 
not surprising that we should be puzzled over them. 
They care not for green grass or herbage, like ordi- 
nary locusts, but are a scourge of men — yet only of 
those who have not the seal of God on their fore- 
heads. Neither have they power to kill men, but 
only to torment, "as the torment of a scorpion." They 
are armored and arrayed for battle, and they have a 
king over them, "the angel of the abyss." This sug- 
gests that they may be, as some think, infernal in- 
telligences in the shape of strange locusts, unknown 
and unlisted in any of the entomological books of the 
day. Their power is limited to only five months ; but 
so fiendish are their torments that during their reign 
men will prefer to die than to live, yet can not. Even 
the door of suicide seems closed to them. 

The Euphratean Army 

The second Woe Trumpet describes an army totally 
unlike any that ever as yet has marched into battle. 
Certainly for size no other can be compared to it. 
Then, too, the fighting seems to be done by the horses 
instead of their riders ; for men are killed by the three 
plagues of fire, smoke, and brimstone, which proceed 
out of the mouths of the horses. Their tails also have 
power to hurt men, for their tails are as the tails 
of serpents, and have heads. They kill the third part 
of men and probably torture others. Surely we do 



146 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

not have here any ordinary army of mounted men. 
Their plagues of fire, smoke, and brimstone, suggest 
the origin to be the same pit of the Abyss from which 
issued the smoke and the plague of locusts. 

The Personal Execution of the Lamb's Wrath 

Thus will Christ make use of awesome convulsions 
in nature, of angelic agencies from above, and of 
demoniacal agencies from beneath. But the consum- 
mation of the wrath of the Lamb is reached only when 
Christ in person shall come forth upon the white horse 
of victory, followed by the white-horsed armies of 
heaven. Then will He smite the blasphemous and im- 
penitent nations of the earth, Himself treading "the 
winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the 
Almighty." This victory of Christ will settle for a 
thousand years the controversy with Satan as to who 
is the rightful and dominant ruler of the earth. 

Some Results 

i. A Saved Multitude. 

It is a matter of common observation that affliction 
affects men diversely, according to the attitude of their 
hearts towards God. While one class of persons 
will be mellowed and penitent, another class will be 
hardened and rebellious. Also it is a well known fact 
that seasons of persecution and hardship have been 
seasons which have developed faith in some and re- 
vealed faithlessness in others. When, therefore, the 
Fifth Seal shows us the souls of martyrs beneath the 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB 147 

altar we naturally connect them with the first four 
seals — war, anarchy, famine and pestilence. Came 
not the martyrs as a result of faithfulness and loyalty 
to Christ? Then, too, behold the innumerable multi- 
tude that is distinctly said to have "come out of the 

GREAT TRIBULATION." 

2. An Impenitent Host. 

But the hardening effects of the wrath of the Lamb 
are truly appalling. And as when Pharaoh hardened 
his heart there was need for still sorer plagues, so in 
the Apocalypse the judgment scenes are increasingly 
severe. We already have noted the prayer of the 
impenitent to the rocks and mountains to fall upon 
them (Rev. 6:16). Prior to this many shall have 
perished from the earth. Under the Fourth Seal 
authority was given to Death and Hades over the 
fourth part of the earth. Many perish from the 
plagues of the Seven Trumpets (8:11; 9:20). But 
notwithstanding the presence of unparalleled suffering 

and death, "the rest of mankind, repented not 

of the works of their hands" (9:20). This same 
spirit flaunts itself in connection with the Fourth and 
Seventh Vials. There it is recorded that not only will 
men not repent, but will blaspheme the name of God, 
who hath power over these plagues (16:9, 21). Can 
any doom be too great for men so depraved and god- 
less? 



148 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

3. The Defeat of Satan and His Allies. 

In the conflict between Satan and Christ there can 
be no doubt as to the outcome. Judgment upon Satan 
is the logical issue. Christ once said : "Now is the 
judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this 
world be cast out." First, he will be cast out of 
heaven, as we have seen; and following his masterful 
attempt to gain sovereign control of the world he will 
be cast out of the earth and consigned to the Abyss 
(Rev. 20:1-3). And immediately preceding the exe- 
cution of wrath against Satan will come the wrath 
of the Lamb upon Satan's allies — the Beast and the 
False Prophet and the kings of the earth (19:19). 

Summary 

Thus through judgments executed by means of 
cosmical forces, by the agency of angels, by wicked 
men and evil spirits, and by the personal presence of 
Christ, this Gospel Age is to terminate in a catastrophe 
as overwhelming as that of the Flood in the days of 
Noah. The Gospel is indeed the power of God unto 
salvation to every one that believeth ; but many mock 
at the Gospel and reject it. After the removal of 
the Church this rebellious spirit will become turbulent 
and will culminate in an organized revolt against God. 
Necessity will demand that Divine intervention force- 
ably put down this rebellion. Christ will come and 
smite the nations and rule them with a rod of iron. 



THE WRATH OF THE LAMB 149 

Defense of the Wrath of God 

If any one is inclined to murmur against this revela- 
tion of the wrath of the Lamb, let him weigh care- 
fully the opinion of the inhabitants of heaven : "And 
I heard the angel of the waters saying, Righteous art 
thou, who art and who wast, thou Holy One, because 
thou didst thus judge: for they poured out the blood 
of saints and prophets, and blood hast thou given 
them to drink: they are worthy. And I heard the 
altar saying, Yea, O Lord God, the Almighty, true 
and righteous are thy judgments" (16:5-7). 

And shall we not approve and join in the song of 
Moses and the Lamb? 

"Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God, 
the Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, 
thou King of the ages. Who shall not fear, O 
Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art 
holy; for all the nations shall come and worship 
before thee; for thy righteous acts have been 
made manifest" (15:3, 4). 

But it is not for man to murmur against the re- 
vealed will of God, nor to magnify the grace of God 
above His wrath. In times past when earthly con- 
ditions demanded that God should suddenly descend 
in judgment upon an apostate race, the swiftness of 
His anger was terrible. And if yet again Divine in- 
tervention is necessary to check the course of evil and 
to punish impenitent men, should we not still pray, 
"Thy kingdom come" ? 



150 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

We could heartily wish that there were no such 
thing as an approaching Day of Wrath. Indeed many 
are ignoring it, and some even deny it. But should 
we not rather deplore and seek to change the unbear- 
able conditions which shall prevail and make neces- 
sary for God again to interfere in the affairs of men 
in order to check the course of sin and to destroy 
evildoers from the face of the earth ? 

The wrath of God for the most part has become a 
silent note in the preaching of today. The wondrous 
grace and matchless love of God have quite obscured 
His vengeance and His wrath. So bright is the 
effulgence of God's goodness that we have become 
blinded to His wrath. But from the preaching of 
John the Baptist to the Apocalypse of John the Apostle, 
the harsh pronouncement of impending doom is a 
dominant note. Just because this age is the Day of 
Grace is no proof that it will not be followed by a 
brief Day of Wrath. Shall we not do well to accept 
the revelation, and with John the Baptist warn men 
to escape the wrath to come? 



IV 

The World-Wide Extent of 
the Approaching Crisis 



151 



THE WORLD-WIDE EXTENT OF THE AP- 
PROACHING CRISIS 



1. A Presumption from the Preceding Epochal 

Crises. 

2. Demanded by the Growing Unification of the 

World. 

3. Demanded by the World-wide Preaching of the 

Gospel. 

4. Demanded by the World-wide Dispersion of the 

Jews. 

5. Demanded by a World-wide Apostacy. 

6. Christ Foretold a World-wide Judgment. 

7. Paul Taught a Coming World-Crisis. 

8. A World-Crisis Revealed to John. 

9. The Vintage of the Earth. 



152 



THE WORLD-WIDE EXTENT 
OF THE APPROACHING CRISIS 

ALREADY we have seen that however localized 
the setting of each epochal crisis is it has been 
race-wide in its intent. This was especially- 
true of the Crisis of the Cross. In it God manifested 
His love for a perishing world. The Lamb of God 
was crucified in order to bear away the sin of the 
world. In like manner when Christ returns to exe- 
cute judgment will He not deal with the entire world? 
While the culmination of the conflict will be localized 
in Palestine, and have chiefly to do with the Jews and 
the old prophetical world, probably no portion of the 
world will escape. No other interpretation seems to 
exhaust the language of the prophecies. Just as God 
dealt with the race in the Edenic, the Flood, the Babel, 
the Egypt, and the Cross crises, so, in the approaching 
crisis-period we shall have an actual world-crisis. Such 
at least is the presumption we are forced to hold from 
our study of all similar periods in the past. 

Demanded by the Growing Unification of the World 

Both in His schemes of grace for men and in His 
punitive judgments upon men God treats the world 
as a unit. However segregated by language, history, 
custom, and self-interest, we are still to remember that 
God "made of one every nation of men to dwell on 
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EXTENT OF THE APPROACHING CRISIS 155 

all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26). In God's 
eyes the solidarity of the race is an accomplished fact. 
It was a unit from the beginning. God separated 
one nation for special revelation and blessing, but 
never has His heart ceased to yearn for all mankind. 
Nor is this unity of the race so impossible of visual 
realization as it once was. The present commercial, 
educational, political, and religious movements of the 
world are tending towards its speedy unification. And 
this growing unification of a divided race argues for 
a world-crisis as we approach the end of the age. 

Demanded by the World-wide Preaching of the 
Gospel 

During the present age God has temporarily cast 
off the Jews who had miserably failed in giving to 
the world their knowledge of the true God. Even 
when God wanted to show mercy to the great Gentile 
city of Ninevah He had difficulty in securing a prophet 
who would undertake the missionary task. So selfish 
and exclusive was Jonah that he had no heart for his 
job. And when the city repented He was in a petulant 
mood. But through the failure of Israel to be a mis- 
sionary nation God instituted an entirely new order 
of things. The Church was called into being and 
commissioned to go forth and evangelize all the 
nations of the earth. This work has been tardily and 
discreditably done. Meanwhile Christ tarries, ex- 
pectantly yet almost hopelessly, as His question to 
His disciples would appear to indicate: "Neverthe- 



156 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

less, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find the 
faith on the earth?" 

But let us not forget that Christ taught that "the 
FIELD is The world." Does not this necessitate a 
world-wide harvest ? The preaching of the Gospel "unto 
the uttermost part of the earth" demands that the 
reaping be as extensive as the solving. Also let us 
remember that other teaching of our Master that "the 
harvest is the end of the age." This prepares us for 
the harvest scene in Revelation 14:14-16, in which 
is the injunction, "Send forth thy sickle, and reap: 
for the hour to reap is come ; for the harvest oE The 
Earth is ripe. And he that sat upon the cloud cast 
his sickle upon the earth, and the earth was reaped." 
The world-wide seed-sowing of the Gospel Age de- 
mands that the earth, the entire earth, be reaped at 
the end of the age. 

Demanded by the World-wide Dispersion of the Jews 

"And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and 
shall be led captive into all the nations" (Luke 21 :24). 
With these words Christ foretold the world-wide dis- 
persion of the Jews. The prophecy has its literal ful- 
fillment in the world of today. Everywhere we find 
the Jew. Everywhere naturalized, a part of every 
nation, and yet distinct from every nation. But the 
same Christ who predicted this world-wide dispersion 
also set a limit to it. It is not to be forever, but 
only "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." 



EXTENT OF THE APPROACHING CRISIS 157 

When the times of the Gentiles run out God will exe- 
cute judgment upon them. 

Following the reference to the "great and terrible 
day of Jehovah," as contained in Joel 2 :28~32, God 
continues: "For, behold, in those days, and at that 
time, when I shall bring back the captivity of Judah 
and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and will 
bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and 
I will execute judgment upon them there for my peo- 
ple and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scat- 
tered among the nations" (3:1-3). 

The present period of world-wide dispersion of the 
Jews is a period of persecution for them. But let 
the Gentile take warning. All of the curses that have 
fallen upon outcast Israel are in store for the nations 
that have persecuted her. This was prophesied even 
in the days of Moses. When God shall gather these 
outcasts from the ends of the earth unto the land 
which their fathers possessed, then "God will put all 
these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that 
hate thee, that persecuted thee" (See Deut. 30:1-7). 

Demanded by a World-wide Apostacy 

In Revelation 12-14 we have a glimpse behind the 
scenes. There we see the real personages at work 
who will be responsible for the approaching world 
crisis. They are Satan and his emissaries. "Woe 
for the earth and the sea: because the devil is gone 
down unto you having great wrath" (12:12). The 
first agent of Satan's wrath is the Beast out of the 



158 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

sea, after whom "the whole earth wondered" (13:3). 
And they (the whole earth) "worshipped the dragon 
because he gave his authority to the beast." They 
also will worship the conquering and blasphemous 
Beast (13:4-6), whose authority will be over "every 
tribe and people and tongue and nation (v. 7). "And 
ALE That DWELL ON THE Earth shall worship him, 
every one whose name hath not been written from the 
foundation of the world in the book of life of the 
Lamb that hath been slain" (v. 8). 

Such a world-wide apostacy will be made possible 
only by the previous removal of the Church from the 
earth. After the enlightening and restraining in- 
fluence of the Church is withdrawn men will become 
so infatuated with their sinful worship, and so averse 
to God, that His most severe and scorching judgments 
will not bring men to repentance, but only cause them 
to curse and blaspheme God (Rev. 16: 9, 11, 21). 
They will thus invite their own destruction. Such a 
race-wide apostacy can be dealt with only by a race- 
wide judgment. 

Christ Foretold a World-wide Judgment 

Among the events immediately preceding His re- 
turn to the earth Christ declared, "And there shall be 
signs in sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth 
distress of nations" (Luke 21:25). This distress is 
chiefly due to fear, a dire foreboding of some im- 
pending doom (v. 26). But this fear will not be 
groundless. Judgment will indeed descend, wide- 



EXTENT OF THE APPROACHING CRISIS 159 

spread and disastrous. Christ's warning to His dis- 
ciples concerning the dreadful day that is to come 
suddenly as a snare, clearly emphasizes its universal 
character : "For so shall it come upon au. Them that 

DWEU, UPON THE PACE OP AU, THp EARTH" (Luke 

21 135). Where is the gain of minimizing the scope of 
this coming judgment ? Why not rather call upon men 
everywhere to repent and to prepare for it? 

Again while the judgment scene described by Christ 
in Matthew 25 may include the Postmillennial crisis, 
as many suppose, is it not rather a dual prophecy, 
like so many of the visions of the future? For 
although the judgment itself appears to be final it 
evidently begins to be inauguated upon the return of 
Christ to the earth : "But when the Son of man shall 
come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then 
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before 
him shall be gathered aix The nations" (vv. 31, 32). 
This portion of the prophecy without doubt refers to 
Christ's return to the earth in order to establish His 
Millennial kingdom, at which time the nations 
separated to His right hand shall inherit the kingdom 
(v. 34), while those upon His left hand shall be 
doomed to the Lake of Fire. This judgment of the 
living nations differs from that described in Revela- 
tion 20:7-9, in which fire comes down from heaven 
and destroys those who have been gathered to fight 
against the Beloved City. It is the judgment of the 
living nations described in Matthew 25, that Christ 
executes when He comes to sit upon the throne of 



160 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

His glory. But that earthly reign will terminate with 
another universal judgment which will include not 
only the living nations but also the wicked dead 
(Rev. 20). 

Paul Taught a Coming World-Crisis 

The testimony of Paul accords with that of Christ. 
In his Mars Hill address he declared that God "com- 
mandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: 
inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he 
will judge THE world in righteousness by the man 
whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:30, 31). Here 
we see that the judgment of the world will be a 
sequence of the present universal call to repentance. 
This judgment is not now in progress, but is reserved 
for a future "day"; by which we understand not a 
day of twenty- four hours, but another and longer period 
of time, i. e., the "day of wrath." 

This day Paul frequently refers to. For example, 
"but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest 
up for thyself wrath in The day of wrath and reve- 
lation of the righteous judgment of God" (Rom. 2:5). 
Nor is God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath; for 
how otherwise can God judge the world? (Rom. 

3 '4, 5)- 

That these references have no connection with the 
judgment of individuals after death is evident from 
the context. But the further teaching of Paul is that 
this judgment is in connection with the reappearing 
of Christ: "At the revelation of the Lord Jesus 



EXTENT OF THE APPROACHING CRISIS 161 

from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming 
fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not 
God, and to them that obey not the gospel of 
our Lord Jesus" (2 Thess. 1:7, 8). This scene is 
an earthly scene and seems to include all who at the 
end of the Gospel Age are still rebellious towards 
Christ. A world-crisis has come and God again 
descends in person, as in all of the epochal crises, to 
judge the world for its sins. 

The World-wide Crisis as Revealed to John 

Beginning with the opening of the Second Seal, 
wherein the rider of the red horse is authorized to 
"take peace From The Earth," up to the final conflict 
between the rider of the white horse and the allied 
armies under the Beast and the False Prophet, there 
are nearly everywhere indications of a world-wide 
crisis. It is true that the action of the Fourth Seal 
is restricted to the "fourth part of the earth," but 
this only emphasizes the world-wide lawlessness and 
anarchy as the result of the Second Seal. The 
trumpets also are limited in the scope of their action, 
yet when we come to the Seventh Trumpet we hear 
the great voices in heaven proclaim, "The kingdom of 
the wored is become the kingdom of our Lord, and 
of his Christ: and he shall reign unto the ages of 
the ages" (Rev 11 115). But taking possession of the 
kingdom of the world will be preceded by a world- 
conflict and judgment. "And the nations were wroth, 



162 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

and thy wrath came," and the time was ripe "to de- 
stroy them that destroy the earth" (v. 18). 

Turning now to the Bowls of Wrath, we are im- 
pressed with their universal character. The First is 
poured into the earth, and every follower of the Beast 
is sorely afflicted. The Second is poured into the 
sea, and "every living soul died." The Third is 
poured into the fountains and rivers. So fearful is 
this judgment that it is defended by the Altar (16:7). 
The Fourth is poured upon the sun, and men are 
scorched with great heat. The Fifth is poured upon 
the throne of the Beast, and his subjects blaspheme 
God. The Sixth is poured upon the river Euphrates. 
This is restrictive, but it is followed by the spirits of 
demons going forth "unto The kings of The whole 
world," to gather them together unto the war of the 
great day of God, the Almighty. The Seventh Bowl 
is poured out upon the air. There follow voices and 
lightnings and thunders and the greatest earthquake 
ever known. "And the cities of the nations fell: 
and Babylon the great was remembered in the sight 
of God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the 
fierceness of his wrath" (16:19). Thus each of the 
three series of judgments — the Seals, the Trumpets, 
and the Bowls of Wrath, brings us to a consummation 
of judgments against a hostile race. 

The Harvest of the Vintage of the Earth 

Under the figure of the grape harvest we have 
another vision of an earth- judgment: "Send forth 



EXTENT OF THE APPROACHING CRISIS 163 

thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine 
of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the 
angel cast his sickle into the earth, and gathered the 
vintage of the earth, and cast it into the winepress, 
the great, of the wrath of God" (Rev. 14:18, 19). 
This winepress is trodden without the City, but all 
nations are represented. For the scene carries us for- 
ward to the return of Christ, who shall "smite the 
nations : and he shall rule them with a rod of iron : 
and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the 
wrath of God, the Almighty" (19:15). This is fol- 
lowed immediately by the "great supper of God," at 
which is eaten the "flesh of kings, and the flesh of 
captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh 
of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh 
of all men, both free and bond, both small and great" 
(19:18). 

All of the enemies of Christ will be destroyed — the 
Beast, the False Prophet, the kings of the earth, and 
their armies. How indeed can the King of kings 
reign supreme over the earth so long as there are 
rebellious spirits in any portion of the earth? No; 
there can be no Millennium of world-wide blessedness 
that is not instituted by a world-wide crisis which 
shall settle the issue as to whether Christ is to be 
worshipped or Satan. God's problem of dealing with 
the world is a race problem; and not only have all 
the epochal crises of the past been world-crises, but 
the one now approaching will prove no exception to 
the rule. 



The Brevity of the 
Premillennial Crisis 



165 



THE BREVITY OF THE PREMILLENNIAL 
CRISIS 



1. What John Saw. 

2. Two Essential Distinctions. 

3. The Hurry-up Character of John's Visions. 

4. The Events under the Seals Indicate Brevity. 

5. The Quick Action of the Trumpet Judgments. 

8. The Time Limits and Expressions of Revela- 
tion 11-13. 

7. The Intensity and Brevity of the Bowls of 

Wrath. 

8. The Overlapping of Events. 

9. The Recurrence of Events. 

10. Parallelism Between the Seals, Trumpets and 

Bowls of Wrath. 

11. Why Separate Pictures Instead of a Composite 

One? 



12. Summary. 



166 



THE BREVITY OF THE 
PREMILLENNIAL CRISIS 

IF STUDENTS of prophecy had but clearly dis- 
tinguished between the Ages themselves and the 
transitional periods between the Ages many fanci- 
ful interpretations of the Apocalypse would have been 
avoided. Even though we should grant that there 
already has been a historical and typical fulfillment of 
portions of the book, there would still remain a future 
and actual fulfillment that would exhaust the language 
of the visions and lead up to the descent of Christ 
in judgment. What John saw was not previsions of 
secular or sacred history, dating from John's day and 
culminating at the close of the present age, but the 
culmination itself. Although a double fulfillment may 
be enfolded in John's visions, many believe they chiefly 
portray events still in the future. 

Two Essential Distinctions 

There are at least two essential distinctions to be 
made between an Epochal Crisis and a Dispensation. 
First of all, a Dispensation is characterized by the non- 
miraculous intervention of God in behalf of His peo- 
ple as a whole, and for the punishment of the wicked. 
Ordinarily in the onward historical movements of 
each dispensation events have transpired and changes 
have occurred as the result of natural causes, more or 
167 



168 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

less evident. There have been some exceptions to 
this law; but whenever during a dispensation great 
revolutions have come, and the course of history has 
been deviated, the Divine principle of government has 
remained the same. For example, during this Christian 
Dispensation momentous changes have come, king- 
doms have risen and fallen, the Church herself has 
experienced many a dark hour; yet the age itself has 
in no way changed its dispensational character. Dur- 
ing the past Christian centuries God never has inter- 
fered with the natural course of history in such a 
manner as to introduce an entirely new dispensation. 
The free offer of salvation is still open to all, and 
God is not now judging nations and peoples by any 
unusual or supernatural methods. 

But the character of an Epochal Crisis is totally 
different. In every such period the natural course of 
history is checked and diverted by sudden and super- 
natural judgments of God, as in the crisis of the Flood 
or of the Cross. Such is the character of events in 
the major portion of the Apocalypse. They are not 
natural, but supernatural. The result will be an en- 
tirely new dispensation. 

But the second essential difference between an 
Epochal Crisis and a Dispensation is in the time ele- 
ment. A dispensation must be sufficiently long for 
a fair trial of the new regime. With the possible 
exception of the Edenic Age no dispensation has been 
shorter than four hundred years and usually much 
longer. Upon the other hand, an epochal crisis always 



BREVITY OF THE PREMILLENNIAL CRISIS 1 169 

has been of comparatively short duration, as we have 
seen in our study of the periods already past. So let 
us not confuse the events of the prolonged Christian 
dispensation with the dramatically brief period of judg- 
ment which may soon startle the world with its terrors. 

The Hurry-up Character of John's Visions 

We are now to examine the time element in the 
possibly nearing convulsions of the next transitional 
period of history as portrayed in Revelation 4-19. If 
we accept this book as truly a revelation and not an 
enigma, and if we take God to mean what He says, 
there ought to be no difficulty in seeing that these 
chapters describe a comparatively brief period. There 
is nothing in these chapters necessarily to indicate a 
protracted period. All events are of a hurry-up charac- 
ter. The various judgment scenes follow each other 
in rapid succession, like modern moving pictures. In- 
deed frequently they seem not to wait for one another, 
for new events take the stage before preceding ones 
have retired. Occasionally there are ominous pauses 
and interesting episodes, but they stay not the swift 
march of impending judgments. Probably the entire 
period will not exceed a few years, while most of the 
events seem plainly to transpire within a prescribed 
seven-year period. 

The Events under the Seals Indicate Brevity 

The opening of the first four Seals reveals war, 
anarchy, famine, pestilence and death. Why the march 



170 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

of conquering armies and their natural sequences 
should require centuries for their accomplishment, as 
some have maintained, does not seem clear. A few 
years are sufficiently long; nor do they necessitate a 
forced interpretation. 

The opening of the Fifth Seal reveals martyr souls 
who cry from beneath the altar, "How long, O 
Master?" "And it was said unto them, that they 
should rest yet for a little Time." Other of their 
fellow servants were shortly to meet a like fate, then 
vengeance would speedily be executed upon their 
enemies. According to the old school of historical 
interpreters this "little time" is not yet ended. For 
the punishment of their enemies evidently occurs un- 
der the Sixth Seal, which describes the Day of Wrath 
with its sharp and supernatural judgments. 

Between the Sixth and Seventh Seals there is an 
enforced delay incident to the sealing of the servants 
of God from among the Twelve Tribes of Israel 
(7:3). The mere mention here of delay infers no 
tarrying elsewhere in the action of the Seals. In con- 
trast with these sealed ones, and perhaps on account 
of their testimony, we have the great multitude, made 
up of those from every nation, who come out of 
the Great Tribulation (v. 14). So intense will be 
this tribulation that its days must needs be shortened, 
else "no flesh would have been saved" (Matt. 24:22). 
And since "immediately after the tribulation of those 
days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not 
give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven" 



BREVITY OF THE PREMILLENNIAL CRISIS 171 

(Matt 24:29), the beginning of the Great Tribula- 
tion must precede the opening of the Sixth Seal, 
wherein these events are described. This tribulation 
also satisfactorily accounts for the martyr souls seen 
under the altar of the Fifth Seal, which need not be 
made to cover a prolonged martyr period of several 
centuries. 

Thus it seems evident that no extended period of 
history is necessary for the events enfolded under the 
Seals. Swift conquest, famine, pestilence, death, celes- 
tial and terrestial disturbances — all these could easily 
transpire within a period of a few years at the longest. 

The opening of the Seventh Seal is followed by a 
half hour silence in heaven (Rev. 8:1). This is 
the first definite demarkation of time in this portion 
of the book and indicates haste. Even in heaven no 
time can be wasted. Not even a full hour can be de- 
voted to the business on hand. The time is short and 
requires haste. 

The Quick Action of the Trumpet Judgments 

When we examine the Trumpets we are impressed 
with their quick action and rapidity of movement. 
First, we note their supernatural character. The events 
are not the natural sequences of history, but are directly 
traceable to transactions in heaven. The sounding of 
each trumpet is followed immediately by swift judg- 
ment upon earth. Note the rapid action of the 
trumpets. They remind one of our modern rapid-fire 
guns; but the consequences are far more terrible. 



1 72 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

Whether taken literally or symbolically these judg- 
ments are supernatural and hence require no extended 
periods of time for their fulfillment. 

The description of the Fifth Trumpet judgment is 
remarkable, among other things, for the time limita- 
tion set for the operation of the locust army from the 
pit of the Abyss. The locusts have no power to kill 
men, but only to torment them for Five months 
(9:5, 10). The period is both definite and brief. It 
affords a hint as to the brevity of the other judg- 
ments, for this is one of the most important. Since 
there is this specified limitation of time, and since these 
locusts have no power to kill, this Fifth Trumpet can 
have no reference to the murderous scourge of the 
Saracens or to any other army whose purpose is to 
kill and destroy. 

The vast and strange Euphratean army described 
under the second Woe Trumpet, the like of which 
never has been mobilized, would require time for its 
operations. But with modern methods of rapid transit 
the movements of even this vast army need not re- 
quire any greatly extended time. Nor need its mission 
be prolonged since its effectiveness depends not upon 
superior numbers, but upon the strange horses which 
do the fighting (9:18, 19). Just how much of this 
description is natural, and how much is supernatural, 
we may not determine; but there is a suggestion of 
the latest fiendish explosives of modern warfare; and 
there is also the supernaturalness of the judgment to 
be taken into account. 



BREVITY OF THE PREMILLENNIAL CRISIS 173 

Further evidence of the rapid movement of the 
Trumpet judgments is found in chapter 1 1 : "The 
second Woe is past: behold the third Woe cometh 
quickly" (v. 14). This is in accord with the oath 
of the strong angel in the episode between the sound- 
ing of the Sixth and Seventh Trumpets: "There 
shall be DEEAY no longer: but in the days of the voice 
of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then 
is finished the mystery of God" (10:6, 7). And im- 
mediately following the sounding of the Seventh, or 
third Woe Trumpet, there are voices of rejoicing in 
heaven because God has forcibly taken possession of 
the kingdom, destroyed His enemies, and rewarded 
His servants (11:15-18). The Trumpets seem to be 
even more limited in time than the Seals. It has been 
suggested by Prof. W. G. Moorehead that the Third 
Trumpet starts where the Third Seal ends and the 
Fourth Seal begins. 

The Time Limits and Expressions of Chapters 11-13 

We have some strong sidelights upon the brevity 
of the approaching crisis in the time expressions. 
First, we shall consider those of chapter n. "And 
the court which is without the temple leave without, 
and measure it not; for it hath been given unto the 
nations : and the holy city shall they tread under foot 
forty and Two months. And I will give unto my 
two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a Thousand 

TWO HUNDRED AND THREESCORE DAYS" (w. 2, 3). 

We take these time expressions literally. The old 



1 74 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

year-day theory has been shown to be untrustworthy. 
Even in the two instances in the Old Testament where 
a day is made to symbolize a year, day means day and 
year means year (Num. 14:34; Ezek. 4:6). One ap- 
parent exception is found in Daniel 9:24-27. But 
there the phrase "seventy weeks" literally means 
"seventy sevens" ; and from the context we learn that 
Gabriel means years instead of days. 

Many believe that it is the last of Daniel's "seventy 
sevens" that is referred to in Revelation 11:2, 3, and 
elsewhere in the book. The giving over of the Holy 
City to the nations for forty-two months for desecra- 
tion probably covers the latter half of the week, or 
three and one-half years. The twelve hundred and 
sixty days during which the two witnesses prophesy 
in the city quite likely covers the same period. But 
even though these periods may not exactly synchronize, 
their combined length is only seven years. 

Need we say that the three and one-half days of 
verses 9 and 1 1 are also literal days ? The testimony 
of the two witnesses being finished, they are then 
overcome by the Beast from the Abyss and are killed. 
Their dead bodies lie exposed in the city for three 
days and a half, after which the breath of God enters 
into them and they are received up to heaven. 

The time expressions of chapters 12 and 13 also 
are so definite that we are not left to the exercise of 
our own opinions. When Satan and his angels are 
cast out of heaven to the earth he has "great wrath, 
knowing that he hath but a SHORT time" (12:12). 



BREVITY OF THE PREMILLENNIAL CRISIS 175 

This short time evidently is the period of his perse- 
cution of the Woman who had fled to the wilderness 
where she was providentially nourished for a "time, 

AND TIMES, AND HAEE A TIME, FROM THE EACE OE THE 

serpent" (12:14). Since the period of the preserva- 
tion of the Woman already has been stated to be "a 

THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND THREESCORE DAYS" 

(v. 6), which equals three and a half times, or years, 
we know that these expressions mean the same thing. 
The same period is mentioned in chapter 13 in another 
connection. The Beast, having been slain and resur- 
rected, receives "authority to continue Eorty and Two 
months" (v. 5). This period of three and a half 
years of the blasphemous reign of the Beast is the 
latter half of the Seventieth Week, for it will culmin- 
ate in his destruction from the presence of Christ (2 
Thess. 2:3-9). 

This same important period of three and a half 
years properly synchronizes with the statement in 
Daniel's prophecy that the saints of the Most High 
shall be given into the hands of the Antichrist "untie 
a TIME, and Times, and haeE a Time." Following 
this persecution the judgment is set and the abiding 
kingdom of Christ is established (Dan. 7:25-27). Once 
again Daniel is instructed by Michael, the archangel, 
that the final and bitterest persecution of his people 
"shall be eor a time, times and haee a time" ( 12 7). 
Daniel did not fully understand. Then it was told 
him, "The words are shut up and sealed till the time 
of the end" (vv. 8, 9). In the Apocalypse we arrive 



176 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

at the "time of the end." According to chapters n, 
12 and 13, Daniel's "time, times, and half a time" is 
the same as in the Revelation, and equals the forty- 
two months and also the thousand two hundred and 
sixty days. 

Probably there will be preliminary events leading 
up to this crisis period. It may be that the rise of 
the Beast, his intrigues and alliances and conquests, 
may cover a considerable period of time, though not 
necessarily. But from the firm establishment of his 
kingdom to its consummation the time will probably 
not be longer than seven years. It is simply the 
brevity of this crisis period that we here are attempt- 
ing to show. 

The Intensity and Brevity of the Seven Bowls of 
Wrath 

Chapter 15 describes the Seven Bowls of Wrath in 
which is "finished the wrath of God" (v. 1). They 
deal in particular with the judgments upon the Beast 
and his kingdom. They are sudden, direct, and super- 
natural. The earth, the sea, the rivers and fountains, 
the sun, are first affected and men are sorely afflicted. 
Then the throne of the Beast is darkened. The first 
five of these plagues reminds us of the Egyptian plagues 
and like them may transpire within a few months. 
Under the Sixth Bowl the working of demons in 
league with men must help materially to hasten events 
and so to shorten the period. When the Seventh 
Bowl of wrath is poured into the air a great voice 



BREVITY OF THE PREMILLENNIAL CRISIS 177 

from the temple and the throne in heaven proclaims, 
"It is finished!" The living nations are judged, but 
especially Babylon. Thus the rapid march of events 
under the Seven Bowls of Wrath, together with their 
character, is certainly indicative of brevity of time. 

The Overlapping of Events 

If all the events under the Seals, Trumpets and 
Vials waited for each to end before the next should 
begin, the time required for their transpiration would 
necessarily be somewhat prolonged. But if the events 
successively recorded under the Seals, for example, do 
not always wait for one another, then the time of the 
Seven Seals as a whole is shortened. While the war 
of conquest under the First Seal may continue for a 
number of years, why should the famine, pestilence and 
death, which are described under the next three Seals, 
wait for the war to end? Such things are often the 
concomitants of war. Likewise, although the sound- 
ing of the first four Trumpets is described successively, 
the events under each Trumpet need not wait for each 
other. For example, under the First Trumpet the 
third part of the earth is affected, burning up trees 
and green grass. If taken literally, this might re- 
quire considerable time. But why should the scourge 
of the Second Trumpet, which afflicts the sea, wait 
until the effects of the First Trumpet are entirely 
accomplished? A like query may be raised with re- 
gard to the Third and Fourth Trumpets. Their 
action is restricted to different spheres and why may 



178 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

there not be an overlapping in the time of their accom- 
plishment? The same should be said with reference 
to first four Vials, or Bowls, of Wrath. 

The Recurrence of Events 

Of even greater importance is the discovery that 
a number of the most important events are barely- 
referred to in their setting with other events, their 
fuller description being reserved until later. This 
later description of events that have previously trans- 
pired is confusing to the cursory reader ; but this very 
recurrence of events enables us to see that much of 
the material is merely repetition, giving the details of 
events previously mentioned. 

For example, take the doom of Babylon which is 
mentioned under the Seventh Bowl of Wrath : — "And 
Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of 
God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the 
fierceness of his wrath" (Rev. 16:19). But the de- 
tails of the description of her destruction are reserved 
for the entire seventeenth and eighteenth chapters. 
And although the description is comparatively long, 
the judgment itself is represented as brief. Wanton 
and vainglorious, blasphemous and defiant, it is said 
of Babylon, "Therefore in one day shall her plagues 
come, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall 
be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord 
God who judged her" (18:8). So sudden and so 
appalling will be the disaster that the kings of the 
earth, her paramours, fearfully explain, "Woe, woe, 



BREVITY OF THE PREMILLENNIAL CRISIS 1 79 

the great city, Babylon, the strong city! for in ONE 
hour is thy judgment come." The refrain, with 
variations, is taken up by the merchants and the ship- 
masters (vv. 15-19). Can we escape the conclusion 
that God seeks to reveal the swiftness and shortness 
of the destruction of Babylon and the evil system 
which she symbolizes? But as already stated this 
judgment was accomplished under the Seventh Vial; 
so that no additional time is to be allowed for the 
events of chapters 17 and 18. 

Another instance of recurrence is in reference to 
the personal return of Christ in judgment. For ex- 
ample, see Revelation 6:16 and 11:17, I &- Examine 
also 14:1 with 14:19, 20. Here we see Christ already 
come; but the detailed description of His return, and 
of His victory over His enemies, is reserved for the 
nineteenth chapter. 

Parallelism Between the Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls 
of Wrath 

Perhaps attention should have been directed earlier 
to the parallelism that exists between the three great 
judgment series of the approaching epochal crisis. 
These judgment series probably are successive only in 
order of description, not in order of time. The 
trumpets do not necessarily follow the Seals in 
chronological order, nor the Vials the Trumpets. Each 
series deals with the entire crisis-period, each looking 
through to the end. This is true of the Seals and 
the Trumpets as well as of the Vials. A comparison 



180 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

of the Seventh Seal, the Seventh Trumpet, and the 
Seventh Vial will readily confirm this statement. But 
the parallelism extends to others of the series besides 
the seventh. This is especially true of the Trumpets 
and the Vials. The first four Trumpets and the first 
four Vials affect respectively the earth, the sea, the 
fountains and rivers, and the sun. The Fifth Trumpet 
is directed only against such "men as have not the 
seal of God in their foreheads" (9:4) ; while the Fifth 
Vial is explicitly said to be poured out upon "the 
throne of the beast" (16:10). The Sixth Trumpet 
and the Sixth Vial deal with the great river Euphrates 
and the Euphratean army. This evident parallelism 
directly affects the time element and necessarily short- 
ens it. 

Why Separate Pictures Instead of a Composite One? 

Instead of a composite picture of the approaching 
judgment period we have separate series of pictures, 
or visions. This is not for the purpose of confusing, 
but in order to simplify and vivify. By this method 
God would seem to have singled out and thrown upon 
the great screen of prophecy the various spheres of 
His coming judgments. Have we not in the Seals 
God's judgments upon apostate Christendom, intimated 
in the cry of the martyr souls under the Fifth Seal, 
the ascending prayers of the saints under the Seventh 
Seal, and perhaps also the tribulation victors of chap- 
ter 7? On the other hand, the Trumpets seem to 
culminate upon heathendom, as intimated in the 



BREVITY OF THE PREMILLENNIAL CRISIS 181 

resume at the close of the Sixth Trumpet : "And 
the rest of mankind, who were not killed with these 
plagues, repented not of the works of their hands, 
that they should not worship demons, and the idols 
of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and 
of wood" (9:20). And without question the Bowls 
of Wrath have to do chiefly with the judgments upon 
the Beast and his kingdom (16:6, 9, 10, 14, 19). 
Thus although each of these series of judgments con- 
tains intimations of its far-reaching and universal 
character, each also is in a measure distinctive and 
limited in action. A composite picture is a blurred 
picture. Vividness and clearness of detail is best se- 
cured by separate pictures, each from a different angle 
of vision. This is why we have four Gospels instead 
of one. And this is the method that seems to have 
been employed by God in the Apocalypse. 

Summary 

Is it not evident from this examination of the ma- 
terial that the main portion of the Revelation deals 
with events wholly in the future and limited in dura- 
tion to a few short years? Much of the material is 
preparatory and explanatory, or else descriptive of 
events already past, which add nothing to the onward 
march of events, and hence require no additional esti- 
mate of time. The three series of judgments are not 
successive in transpiration, but only in description. 
What they portray is not numerous judgments scat- 
tered through many centuries, but a single judgment 



182 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

period of comparatively brief duration. This we have 
seen in the overlappings, the parallelisms, the repeti- 
tions, and the recurrences. Each series of judgments, 
whether Seals, Trumpets or Vials, is complete in it- 
self. Though they do not all start with the same 
event each one leads up to the same climax, or crisis, 
which accomplishes the wrath of God against an 
apostate race and heralds the establishment of His 
kingdom of righteousness upon the earth. 



VI 
Mercy in the Midst of Wrath 



MERCY IN THE MIDST OF WRATH 

1. The Customary Thing with God. 

2. Indicated in the Visions of the Throne. 

3. Shown in the Removal of the Church. 

4. The Harvest of the Earth. 

5. Shown in Repeated Warnings and in Previous 

Judgments. 

6. Mercy Shown to Israel of Old. 

7. Mercy for the Gentiles Also. 

8. Foregleams of Millennial Glories. 

9. God Fully Justified. 



184 



MERCY IN THE 
MIDST OF WRATH 

EVERY epochal crisis in the past has been the 
occasion for the exhibition of Divine mercy as 
well as of fearsome judgments. We have but 
to recall the preaching and the warning of Noah to 
the men of his generation, and finally the preserva- 
tion of Noah and his family during the Flood Crisis. 
Also we recall the miraculous deliverance of the 
Chosen People out of the power of the Egyptians as 
another striking manifestation of mercy in the midst 
of destructive judgments. These two signal instances 
are the most familiar, yet they are not solitary. Never 
has God intervened in the course of human events to 
judge the sins of men without showing Himself also 
to be the God of mercy. And while we are overawed 
and appalled by the descriptions of the judgments 
which are to break in cyclonic violence upon the world 
when the present dispensation of grace is suddenly 
brought to its close, yet in the midst of the darkened 
clouds and the lightning flashes of God's wrath we 
see also bright visions of God's love and wondrous 
grace. 

Indicated in the Visions of the Throne 

Even in the midst of the judgment throne, with 
which the various judgment visions in the Revelation 
185 



186 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

are introduced, John sees "a Lamb standing, as 
though it had been slain"; and sees also the four 
living creatures and the four and twenty elders fall 
down before the Lamb with harps of praise, and hears 
them sing a new song, saying, 

"Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open 
the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and didst 
purchase unto God with thy blood men of every 
tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and 
madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and 
priests; and they reign upon the earth" (Rev. 
5:9, 10). 

This song of rejoicing over the redeemed of every 
land and nation alleviates the horrors of the coming 
judgments thereafter described. God's wrath will in- 
deed scorch and consume the earth, but not those 
who are willing to accept His overtures of mercy. 
The Cross of Christ carries provision of salvation 
for all mankind. And even after the Church of Christ 
has been removed to its heavenly sphere there will be 
left those who will share in the benefits of the atone- 
ment. These will be "a kingdom and priests; and 
they reign upon the earth." The kingdom in view 
evidently is the Millennial Kingdom. 

The myriads of angels round about the throne, 
though sinless and knowing nothing of the joys of 
redemption, say with a great voice, 

"Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to 
receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and 
might, and honor, and glory, and blessing" (Rev. 
5:11, 12). 



MERCY IN THE MIDST OF WRATH 187 

The power and the might are not gifts which Christ 
is never to use, but which, though used, do not over- 
shadow his mercy. Even after His judgments sweep 
over the earth there will still be rejoicing both in 
heaven and on the earth. Indeed the rejoicings that 
John heard were simply anticipatory of the final 
victories of Christ in connection with the establish- 
ment of His kingdom. Then truly will every created 
thing say, 

"Unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto 
the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor, and 
the glory, and the dominion, for ever and ever" 
(v. 13). 

Mercv Shown in the Removal of the Church from the 
Earth 

Even prior to the breaking of God's wrath upon 
the world during the approaching crisis-period the 
true Church will gloriously share in the mercy of 
God. Before the Day of the Lord comes both the 
saints that sleep in Jesus and the living saints shall 
be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 
4:16, 17). They who wait for God's Son from 
heaven are to be delivered "from the wrath to come" 
(1 Thess. 1 :io). "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, 
that that day should overtake you as a thief" (1 
Thess. 5:4). 

Christians have their tribulations in the present. 
All who live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution. 
But we shall not come into judgment (John 5:24). 



188 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

We shall escape the wrath that is coming upon the 
world to the uttermost (i Thess. 2:16), for God ap- 
pointed us not unto wrath (1 Thess. 5:9). Instead, 
we are to share in the execution of judgment : "Know 

ye not that the saints shall judge the world? 

Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" (1 Cor. 
6:2, 3). Before the hour of trial comes for those 
who dwell upon the earth the true Church probably 
will already have been removed from the scene of 
woe. 

The Harvest of the Earth 

There are other bodies of saved ones, in addition 
to the Church. Another age, the Millennial Age, is 
to follow ours, and a holy remnant of both Jews and 
Gentiles will be saved who shall sow the Millennial 
earth. Christ said that the end of this age would 
be a harvest time, when not only the tares will be 
burned, but when the good seed, who are the sons 
of the kingdom, will be preserved (Matt. 13:36-43). 
This figure of the harvest is vividly set before us in 
the Revelation: "And I saw, and behold, a white 
cloud; and on the cloud one sitting like unto a son 
of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in 
his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out 
of the temple, crying with a great voice to him that 
sat on the cloud, Send forth thy sickle, and reap; for 
the hour to reap is come; for the harvest of the earth 
is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud cast his sickle 
upon the earth; and the earth was reaped" (Rev. 



MERCY IN THE MIDST OF WRATH 189 

14:14-16). The language, "another angel," suggests 
that the one "like unto a son of man" is also an angel. 
Anyway Christ said concerning this harvest, "the 
reapers are the angels" (Matt. 13:39). 

During the Gospel Age both the sowing and the 
reaping are committed to men. Everywhere we are 
to scatter the seed broadcast, and we also are held 
responsible for the harvest. But in the consumma- 
tion of the age, when the Church shall have been 
removed from the earth, a new order will prevail, 
and the final reaping of the earth's harvest will be 
done by the angels. With all our wisdom we men 
are not able always to distinguish between the wheat 
and the tares. The final separation therefore must 
be committed to beings of higher intelligence who will 
make no mistakes. 

Mercy Shown in Repeated Warnings and Previous 
Judgments 

The very prophecies of impending wrath, so fully 
given by Old Testament prophets and also by our 
Lord and the New Testament writers, are themselves 
ample proof of God's graciousness. No word of God 
shall fail. Through Noah the antediluvians were 
amply warned, and in due time the Flood came. 
Through prophets, seers, and God Himself the com- 
ing doom of the world long has been heralded. That 
dread Day of Wrath will assuredly come, as came 
the Flood of old. God is under no obligation to 



190 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

warn men. Its pronouncement is God's loving sum- 
mons to men to repent and be saved. 

Furthermore, while the judgments described in the 
Revelation are actually in progress, warnings and 
appeals will be interspersed. For example, following 
the Fourth Trumpet an eagle flying in mid-heaven, 
will be heard, "saying with a great voice, Woe, woe, 
woe, for them that dwell on the earth, by reason of 
the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, 
who are yet to sound" (8:13). This warning im- 
plies an opportunity for repentance (9:21). 

Similarly there will be a proclamation from a new 
source of good tidings: "And he saith with a great 
voice, Fear God, and give him glory; for the hour 
of his judgment is come : and worship him that made 
the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of 
waters" (14:7). This does not sound much like the 
good tidings which men are now proclaiming; but in 
contrast with the wrecking judgments of that hour 
even the proclamation to fear and worship God as 
the Creator will be good tidings. 

Also there is the awful warning of the third angel 
of Revelation 14: "If any man worshippeth the 
beast and his image, and receiveth a mark on his fore- 
head, or upon his hand, he also shall drink of the 
wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared un- 
mixed in the cup of his anger; and he shall be tor- 
mented with fire and brimstone in the presence of 
the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb" 
(14:10). But in precious contrast is the vision of 



MERCY IN THE MIDST OF WRATH 191 

rejoicing in the following chapter: "And I saw as 
it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them 
that come off victorious from the beast, and from his 
image, and from the number of his name, standing 
by the sea of glass, having harps of God. And they 
sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the 
song of the Lamb, saying, 

"Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord 
God, the Almighty; righteous and true are thy 
ways, thou King of the ages. Who shall not 
fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name ? for thou only 
art holy ; for all the nations shall come and worship 
before thee ; for thy righteous acts have been made 
manifest" (15:2-4). 

God's judgments are His "righteous acts"; and 
when men see that they are executed in mercy, as 
well as in wrath, many will come and worship before 
Him. 

Mercy Shown to Israel of Old 

Before the rigors and terrors of the brief day of 
God's wrath reach their climax He will have resumed 
His dealings with His covenanted people of old. 
Though now despised and downtrodden, God has not 
forgotten His covenant with them — a covenant of 
blessing, as well as of cursing. Their latter end is 
repeatedly depicted in most vivid and glowing colors. 
Hence immediately preceding the coming time of 
their unequalled tribulation the command shall go 
forth, "Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the 



192 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on 
their foreheads" (Rev. 7:3). And those sealed num- 
bered one hundred and forty-four thousand out of 
every tribe of the children of Israel. Scattered Israel 
will be regathered from among the nations. During 
the period of Jacob's trouble many doubtless will 
perish; but the remnant will turn to the Lord and be 
saved (Rom. 11:26, 27). 

The Jewish problem is a perplexing one to many 
who do not take time to painstakingly study and 
humbly believe what God has written on the subject. 
As Paul argues, the present rejection of the Jews 
as a nation is merely temporary (Rom. 11). When 
Christ cursed the fig tree that made such a fair show 
but which bore no fruit, it was distinctly stated that 
"it was not the season for figs." If the fig tree sym- 
bolized the Jewish nation, then its pretentious profes- 
sions were belying its real condition. The nation can 
not be fruitful before it accepts Jesus as its Messiah 
and is purged of its sins. But they who come out of 
Jacob shall take root, and shall fill the face of the 
world with fruit (Isa. 27:6). 

The promise made to them through Moses, and 
afterwards amplified and often repeated, was this: 
"When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are 
come upon thee, in the; latter days thou shalt return 
unto Jehovah thy God, and hearken unto his voice: 
for Jehovah thy God is a merciful God; he will not 
fail thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant 
of thy fathers which he sware unto them" (Deut. 



MERCY IN THE MIDST OF WRATH 193 

4 : 3°> 3 1 )- It is this covenant of mercy that God 
will keep during the approaching crisis. 

Mercy for the Gentiles Also 

During the next judgment period there will be 
another and still larger company of saved ones. In 
the vision immediately following that of the sealed 
ones out of the tribes of the children of Israel we 
behold an innumerable multitude of Gentiles, out "of 
all tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before 
the throne and before the Lamb" (Rev. 7:10). Much 
misunderstanding as to who shall compose this mul- 
titude has arisen from not accepting the interpretation 
given to John by the Elder : "And he said unto me, 
These are they that come out oe the great trib- 
ulation" (Rev. 7 114). The mistake of confusing this 
company with the Church has been made by many. 
The two companies seem to be quite distinct. Since 
"the tribulation, the great one" is still future, and 
since it occurs in connection with the return of Christ, 
the saved multitude who come out of it must not be 
identified with the Church whose members belong to 
all the centuries that have elapsed since Christ left 
the earth. But without entering further into this 
controversy, let us simply accept the interpretation 
given to John and believe that during that future and 
unparalleled tribulation God will show abundant 
mercy to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. 



194 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

Foregleams of Millennial Glories 

The close of the Apocalyptic description of the ap- 
proaching crisis contains two strongly contrasting 
visions. The first is a vision of what befalls the 
enemies of Christ, depicting the utter annihilation of 
the hostile armies and the casting of the Beast and 
the False Prophet alive into the Lake of Fire (Rev. 
19:17-21). The second is a vision of thrones and of 
rewards for the martyrs of the period of Satan's 
wrath and for those who refused to worship the Beast 
or to receive his mark though they escaped martyr- 
dom (20:4). It is beside our purpose to consider 
the occupants of the thrones. But concerning the 
martyrs and the unbeheaded victors under the brief 
reign of the Beasts, it is specified that they shall live 
and reign with Christ for a thousand years. They 
who are to be raised prior to the Great Tribulation 
shall have no advantage over those who remain true 
to Christ and the Word of God during those troublous 
times. This final vision of God's faithfulness intro- 
duces us to the glories of the Millennial reign of 
Christ upon the earth. 

God Fully Justified 

Is it not clearly evident, therefore, from the fore- 
going revelations of God's mercy, that God will be 
fully justified when Christ shall return in glory to 
purify the earth through devastating and overwhelm- 
ing judgments? Although the heavens that now are, 



MERCY IN THE MIDST OF WRATH 195 

and the earth, are being reserved against the day of 
judgment and the destruction of ungodly men, as 
Peter informs us; and although that hour of tribula- 
tion will be one of unequalled fury, yet out of all 
these catastrophes shall come multitudes of saved ones 
who shall reign with Christ upon the earth. The 
manifestations of God's mercy during the approach- 
ing epochal crisis will surpass those of every pre- 
ceding judgment period. 



D 

The Postmillennial Crisis 



197 



THE POSTMILLENNIAL EPOCHAL CRISIS 

1. Another Condensed Vision, Yet Fully Out- 

lined. 

2. Some Vital Distinctions Between the Premil- 

lennial and the Postmillennial Epochal 
Crises. 

3. Millennial Glory. 

4. Millennial Failure. 

5. Satan Again to the Fore. 

6. Postmillennial Ruin. 

7. The Racial Extent of the Postmillennial Revolt. 

8. The Brevity of the Postmillennial Crisis. 

9. The Judgment of the Great White Throne. 

10. The Passing of Heaven and Earth. 

11. The New Earth. 

12. The New Jerusalem. 

13. The People of the New Earth. 

14. God's Methods Justified by His Purposes. 

J98 



THE POSTMILLENNIAL 
CRISIS 

THE final great epochal crisis is of vital interest 
in itself and also because it affords us an- 
other clear-cut summary of the characteristics 
which we have found to be common to all similar 
periods. The details of the picture are wanting, yet 
these common characteristics stand out like some huge 
mountain against the western sky at sunset. The 
bare outline is in keeping with its distant majesty. 

Here again we see a just God directly and sud- 
denly intervening in the affairs of men with punitive 
judgments. Here is destruction for many, but also 
mercy for others. Here Satan is again in the fore- 
ground. The scope of the judgments and the brevity 
of the period are as we should expect them to be. 
But the outcome will be the introduction of a new 
order of things that will far surpass in glory all that 
has gone before. Through the telescope of prophecy 
we behold with reverence and awe visions which be- 
long to the dim future and which are of eternal con- 
cern to us. 

Some Vital Differences Between the Premillennial 
and the Postmillennial Crises 

For the sake of those who look forward to a Post- 
millennial return of Christ and to what they term 
199 



200 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

"the general judgment," which is to occur at that 
time, let us pause to briefly consider some essential 
distinctions between the Premillennial and the Post- 
millennial crises as they were given to the Apostle 
John. These differences are so marked that it is diffi- 
cult for some to see how they can possibly refer to a 
single judgment period. Note carefully the following 
differences : 

1. They Differ as to the Place Given to Christ. 

In the events which consummate the Premillennial 
crisis Christ is the prominent figure and the chief 
actor. He comes forth from heaven, followed by 
heaven's armies, and personally directs the attack 
against the hostile armies which war against Him. 

But in the Postmillennial crisis Christ is not only 
not the leading personage, but is not even mentioned. 
It is assumed, however, that He is still King of kings 
and Lord of lords. 

2. They Differ as to the Agencies of Wrath. 

In the Premillennial crisis judgment is inflicted by 
Christ Himself. He is the executioner of wrath, 
smiting the nations with His sharp sword (19:15). 
There are also the armies of heaven and the birds 
of prey (19:17-19). 

But in the Postmillennial crisis the sole agency of 
wrath against the living is the "fire from heaven" 
(20:9). 



THE POSTMILLENNIAL CRISIS 201 

3. They Differ as to the Thrones. 

The thrones seen in the Premillennial crisis are 
occupied by victorious saints unto whom judgment 
is given. They live and reign with Christ (20:4). 
These thrones are for the administration of govern- 
ment. 

But the throne seen in the Postmillennial crisis is 
"a great white throne," and its occupant the indescrib- 
able and awesome "Him" (20:11). This is purely a 
throne of judgment. 

4. They Differ as to the Parties Judged. 

The people judged during the Premillennial crisis 
are the living nations, especially the allied armies 
under the Beast and the False Prophet (19:17-21). 

But in the Postmillennial crisis not only are the 
living nations judged (20:8, 9), but also all of the 
wicked dead (20:12, 13). 

5. They Differ as to the Punishment Meted Out To 

Satan. 

In the Premillennial crisis Satan is merely bound 
and consigned to the Abyss for a thousand years 
(20:2, 3). 

But in the Postmillennial crisis Satan is cast into 
the Lake of Fire, there to remain in torment (20:10). 

6. They Differ as to the Resurrection Scenes. 

The resurrection that precedes the Millennium is 
called the first, in distinction from the resurrection 



202 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

that follows the Millennium. They who share in this 
first resurrection seem to be principally, if not wholly, 
the martyrs of the Premillennial crisis (20:4). These 
live and reign with Christ. 

But they who are raised after the Millennium are 
the wicked dead of all the preceding centuries and 
millenniums, who are raised only for the purpose of 
final judgment (20:12, 13). 

7. They Differ as to the Rewards. 

A limited reign of a thousand years upon the Mil- 
lennial earth is granted to those mentioned in the 
Premillennial crisis (20:4, 6). 

But the Postmillennial victors are to reign upon 
the new earth for ever and ever (22:5). 

8. They Differ as to the City of Jerusalem. 

Prior to the Millennium Jerusalem is given over to 
the nations to be trodden under foot for forty-two 
months. But in the Postmillennial Crisis the Gentile 
armies (11 :2) gathered by Satan are permitted merely 
to encompass the city where they are destroyed (20:9). 

But the Jerusalem that is seen after the Postmil- 
lennial crisis is a totally different city. It is a "holy 
city, New Jerusalem," which has come down out of 
heaven from God (21:2). 

After having briefly scanned these essential distinc- 
tions, can we lightly do away with a Millennial reign 
of Christ upon the earth, or fail to recognize both a 
Premillennial and a Postmillennial epochal crisis? 



THE POSTMILLENNIAL CRISIS 203 

Millennial Glory 

"And they lived and reigned with Christ for a 
thousand years." For a full description of the Mil- 
lennial Kingdom the Old Testament must be believ- 
ingly re-read. The prophets foretold not alone the 
sufferings of the Messiah, but also and chiefly the 
glories that should follow. They were accustomed 
to dwell at length upon the glorious reign of their 
Messiah from Mount Zion. They delighted to sing 
the praises of Jerusalem as the throne of Christ and 
the governing center of the whole earth. Nor were 
these vivid descriptions merely the glowing words 
and fervid imagination of the prophets, but these de- 
scriptions of the Millennial glories were usually given 
as the words of God. At that time the united nation 
of Israel, having been gathered from among the 
nations and securely established in its own land, 
should then be wholly righteous (Isa. 60:21). Unto 
them shall be given the sovereign power of the nations, 
and their riches shall be increased beyond measure 
(Isa. 60:15-20). Unto them shall flow all nations, 
being in complete subjection (Isa. 60:12; 62:12; 
66:12). When the government shall be upon His 
shoulders, and when the Prince of Peace shall truly 
reign, then war shall cease and there will be uni- 
versal peace. 

Introduced by the personal return of Christ to the 
earth and the overthrow of all enemies, heralded by 
portentous signs in heaven and in earth, marked by 
physical changes and improved climatic conditions, 



204 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

blessed by the personal reign of Christ over the earth 
and the cessation of the reign of Satan, can we not 
vividly imagine what the Millennial conditions must 
be? The glowing descriptions of the Old Testament 
prophets are not extravagant. Rather indeed is 
human language impoverished in the attempt to por- 
tray the earthly blessings and the material glories of 
the Millennium, in which not Israel only but all 
nations will share. 

Millennial Failure 

"And when the thousand years are finished, Satan 
shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth 
to deceive the nations which are in the four cor- 
ners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them 
together to the war: the number of whom is as the 
sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth 
of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints 
about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out 
of heaven, and devoured them" (Rev. 20:7-9). 

Thus will end the last test of human government, 
a test that will be made under the most favorable 
conditions. The first test of man's ability to govern 
himself was made in Eden. No sin was present 
there, but Satan was free and had access to man. 
Innocence gave way before the Tempter. Disobedience 
and rebellion against the will of God proved that 
man was unfit to govern himself. That first test 
ended in disastrous failure. But so also has each 
succeeding test. The Flood, the Dispersion, the 



THE POSTMILLENNIAL CRISIS 205 

Egyptian plagues, the Cross, the Battle of Har- 
Magedon — all mark off great dispensations in which 
successive tests of man to govern himself according 
to the will of God are fully made. So far as man 
is concerned they all end in failure. Under the reign 
of Conscience, of Freedom, of Law, of Grace, it has 
been shown that man can not be cajoled or coerced 
into wholly yielding himself to the wise and loving 
control of God. Under each trial he has chosen sin 
to righteousness. This ancient spirit of rebellion will 
not be eradicated even by the Gospel, for men will 
continue to reject it. 

Following the present testing of man under the 
free offer of grace, a final test remains to be tried. 
Heretofore Satan has had free access to the minds 
and hearts of men. The Millennial test will find 
man free from evil suggestions from either Satan or 
his hosts of evil. Moreover no sinful environment 
will be allowed. Though in the hands of men the 
government of the world will be under the direct 
supervision of Christ. There will also be the Holy 
Spirit, an enlightened conscience, and laws righteously 
administered. Under such favorable conditions will 
failure be possible? 

Yet, after one thousand years of the most perfect 
government the world has experienced, another 
calamitous failure will ensue. This catastrophe is 
directly attributable to Satan. After so long a reign 
of righteousness and peace, during which man will 
have largely ceased to walk in the ways of sin, there 



206 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

will still be the issue that Adam and Eve had to 
face; namely, is even the Millennial man able to re- 
sist evil suggestions and insinuations from without and 
still remain true to God? This test must be made. 
Even the Millennial man must be tried out. Have 
you noted the exact language of Revelation 20:3 — 
"after this he must be loosed for a little time"? This 
awful necessity cannot be avoided. The final test 
will be followed by a final failure. Only thus, ap- 
parently, will man learn to cease to trust in himself 
and cease to rebel against the loving will of God. 

Satan Again to the Fore 

We have found that Satan has played a prominent 
part in each of the epochal crises. Indeed we may 
say that he sometimes has precipitated these crises. 
This was true of the Edenic crisis. There would 
have been no such crisis if Satan had not appeared 
upon the scene. And back of the incorrigible apostacy 
that preceded the Flood; back of the Babel rebellion; 
and back of the magicians of Egypt who withstood 
Moses and Aaron, the deceptive work of Satan is 
baldly evident. The crisis period of Christ's earthly 
ministry was marked by repeated assaults and con- 
flicts with Satan. In the Premillennial epochal crisis, 
when Christ shall return, we already have seen how 
the crisis will be precipitated and necessitated by the 
expulsion of Satan and his angels from heaven and 
his descent to the earth, having great wrath. 

Secretly or openly the conflict has raged between 



THE POSTMILLENNIAL CRISIS 207 

the Seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent. 
During the Millennium that conflict will cease, for 
Satan will be bound. Satan is the "god of this age" 
— 'the dictator of the present course of things in the 
world. But during the Millennium Christ will reign 
supreme. After that beneficent reign, in which men 
will participate and share in its unparalleled advantages 
and blessings, another opportunity will be given to 
choose between Christ and Satan. Once it was Christ 
and Barabbas, and Christ was crucified! But the 
final issue is Christ or Satan. 

Loosed from prison for only a short time, it is 
amazing how successfully Satan will deceive mankind 
and sting men into speedy revolt against the just and 
beneficent government of Christ (Rev. 20:7, 8). The 
nations are gotten quickly into line and assemble for 
the attack upon "the beloved city." Only by fire 
from heaven will the revolt instigated by Satan be 
turned into utter failure. 

Satan's doom is sealed. That Postmillennial rebel- 
lion will be the last. The intensely dramatic career 
of Satan will end in inglorious defeat. Often his 
wiles have marvelously succeeded. Men ever have 
been his dupes. He has been permitted to sift not 
Peter only, but the entire race. We often have won- 
dered why his career was not cut short at the be- 
ginning. Why did not God immediately curb Satan's 
power after his dastardly deed in the Garden? Why 
permit him to go on deceiving men and discrediting 
God during all the millenniums except the last? 



208 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

Apparently that not only our first parents, but also 
all of their children should be tested as they were 
tested. The tragedy of Eden has been the tragedy 
of every life since then. No man, save One, has been 
able always to be victor over Satan. Each has been 
made to feel the bitterness and the remorse of sin. 
Every man needs Christ to fight the battle for him. 

But finally, all tests being ended, and Satan's per- 
missory work of deception being completed, he shall 
be "cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where 
are also the beast and the false prophet; and they 
shall be tormented day and night forever and ever" 
(20:10). The doom has been slow of execution, but 
the judgment will be righteous and will satisfy all 
of the demands of justice. 

Postmillennial Ruin 

Just prior to the return of Christ to establish His 
Millennial kingdom we found the world in open revolt 
— "the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their 
armies, gathered together to make war against him 
that sat on the horse, and against his army" (Rev. 
19:19). This organized attempt of victorious armies 
to defeat the Rider upon the white horse reveals the 
hatred and audacity of those who are deceived by 
Satan. That widespread rebellion was quickly brought 
to an end. The allied armies were mysteriously de- 
stroyed by the sword that proceeded out of the mouth 
of Christ. Thus closed the conflict with Satan and 
his allies at the end of the Gospel Dispensation. 



THE POSTMILLENNIAL CRISIS 209 

A similar conflict is scheduled to follow the Millen- 
nium. The allied armies of the earth will besiege 
Jerusalem. Fast trains, swift ocean liners, and swifter 
air ships, will make possible speedy and gigantic 
military operations such as the world never has wit- 
nessed. Acting in uniformity, taking orders from a 
single head, the pent up wrath of a thousand years 
will suddenly burst forth and hostile armies will 
envelope the world's capitol, bent upon the complete 
overthrow of the world's King. But this outbreak 
of human and satanic hatred against God will be the 
last. As of old God will miraculously deliver His 
people. Fire will come down from heaven and con- 
sume their enemies. This utter and speedy annihila- 
tion will end forever all rebellion against God. 

The Racial Extent of the Postmillennial Revolt 

The nations deceived by Satan will be located "in 
the four corners of the earth." The number of the 
allied armies will be "as the sand of the sea." They 
will go up to Jerusalem "over the breadth of the 
earth" (Rev. 20:8, 9). Such expressions indicate a 
world-wide revolt against the Millennial seat of gov- 
ernment. It will be a thoroughly organized attempt 
by the dissatisfied among all the nations to overthrow 
the authority of Christ. 

In attempting to account for such a widespread 
rebellion we must take into consideration not only 
the wiles of the Devil and the unchanged nature of 
mankind, but also the character of the Millennial 



210 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

kingdom. Although the most enviable conditions will 
prevail, that kingdom will not be ideal. Its rule will 
be blessed indeed, yet characterized by rugged severity 
against offenders. Christ is to rule, but it will be 
"with a rod of iron" (19:15). Peace will prevail, 
but often at the cost of harshness. The political con- 
ditions will be unequal, for Israel will be supreme and 
the other nations in forcible subjection to her (Isa. 
60:10-14). A government of coercion, however bene- 
ficial, may forestall all outward rebellion, but it can- 
not kill the rebel in the heart. When all repression 
is withdrawn mankind will fall an easy prey to the 
misrepresentations of Satan and in open revolt seek 
to take the government of the world again into their 
own hands. This is not a criticism of the form of 
government itself. The Millennial kingdom will be 
most blessed and glorious, and doubtless the best that 
God can establish under the circumstances. But we 
rejoice that there is to follow a reign of Christ that 
shall be flawless in its after-effects. 

The Brevity of the Postmillennial Crisis 

The epochal crisis that is to follow the Millennium 
will be short indeed. Its brevity may even exceed that 
of most of the preceding crises. These crises are 
the harvest seasons of the preceding dispensations. 
In them the wheat is separated from the chaff by 
sharp and decisive judgments. Brevity is one of their 
chief characteristics. They are as clearly distinguished 



THE POSTMILLENNIAL CRISIS 21 1 

from the foregoing dispensations as the harvest sea- 
son from the growing season. 

The actual length of the Postmillennial epoch is 
not measured for us in days and years, but by the 
time between the loosing of Satan from prison and 
his being cast into the Lake of Fire. This loosing of 
Satan is said to be "for a uttle time" (Rev. 20:3). 
The brief season of his single campaign will be as 
astonishing as its magnitude. But mingled with 
Satan's singular daring and generalship is a surprising 
lack of an exact estimate of the strength and resources 
of the Lord. Inspired only by his vain ambition to 
grasp again the scepter of the world Satan seems to 
have remembered only his vast military successes dur- 
ing the Premillennial crisis, and to have strangely 
forgotten the annihilation of his forces at the battle 
of Har-Magedon (16:16). Such blinding ambition 
is not uncommon among his followers. But no sooner 
shall the rapidly assembled divisions and corps of 
the hostile armies have surrounded Jerusalem than 
miraculous deliverance shall be given to the saints. 
The quickly-gotten-up revolt shall be even more quickly 
ended. All of the then liming foes of Christ will be 
utterly consumed by fire from heaven. God will for- 
ever put a stop to the rebellions of men and to the 
career of man's archenemy. 

The Judgment of the Great White Throne 

(Rev. 20:11-15) 

Not only will all of the living enemies of Christ be 



212 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

destroyed, but the Postmillennial crisis will be also 
the time for the judgment of the wicked dead. The 
Premillennial epochal crisis was a resurrection period 
for the saints and martyrs. They of that period were 
raised to share in the glories of the Millennium. But 
the Postmillennial resurrection is a resurrection unto 
judgment. It is even doubtful whether any names 
of those raised shall be found in the Book of Life. 

The basis of judgment is "their works." No salva- 
tion by grace here. No Advocate to plead the cause of 
the guilty. The basis of judgment will be not faith, but 
the Divine record of the life. The cold facts of the 
life will be layed bare, and judgment will be exactly 
meted out. 

The doom of those found guilty before the purity 
of the Great White Throne, by reason of the record 
of the books, is the Lake of Fire (v. 15). Prepared 
primarily for the devil and his angels it will also be 
the final doom of all who choose to serve the devil. 
This is the "second death," from which no power 
can ransom. Finally Death itself, "the last enemy," 
and Hades will be cast into the Lake of Fire. They 
will have served their purpose. In the new earth 
there will be no more death. 

The Passing of Heaven and Earth 

The Postmillennial judgment will have to do not 
only with the living nations which revolt against the 
authority of Christ, and with the wicked dead who are 
raised for judgment, but also with the existing heaven 



THE POSTMILLENNIAL CRISIS 213 

and earth. Both have been the scenes of sin and 
violence. And not only are the angels who left their 
proper habitation, especially Satan, and sinful men, 
to be punished, but the very places of their sin are 
to be dissolved. "And I saw a great white throne, 
and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth 
and the heaven fled away; and there was found no 
place for them" (20:11). This is the fulfillment of 
the incidental prophecy of Christ : "Heaven and earth 
shall pass away." There will be nothing to remind 
us of former defects and defeats. In the presence of 
that Face the old creation will dissolve from view 
and fade away. 

It is not annihilation that is here taught, but the 
complete passing away of the old order of things; not 
extinction, but transition to something infinitely bet- 
ter. This sphere upon which Christ walked and 
talked and suffered and died, is too precious to be 
blotted utterly out of existence. Christ is to reign 
not for a thousand years only, but "unto the ages of 
ages (11:15). But not upon the old sin-cursed earth ! 

Peter tells us that the Noahic world "being over- 
flowed with water, perished : but the heavens that now 
are, and the earth,' by the same word have been stored 
up for fire, being reserved against the day of judg- 
ment and the destruction of ungodly men." But this 
flame-swept earth will reappear. The same earth, yet 
so transfigured as to be new. 



214 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 
The New Earth 

What warrant have we for depicting and defend- 
ing these epochal crises? What is the gain of them? 
Why are they necessary? The answer to these ques- 
tions is twofold. First, they have been shown to be 
necessary on account of the failure of man to hold 
his own against the development of evil which always 
becomes accelerated towards the close of each dis- 
pensation. The hopelessness of sin is its increasing 
momentum. However slow the progress at its begin- 
ning, we can bank upon its growing into uncontrollable 
proportions and attaining unmanageable speed. There- 
fore God has repeatedly intervened in the course of 
history and has forcibly checked the course of sin by 
devastating judgments. 

In the second place, every such direct and personal 
intervention of God has been the occasion of intro- 
ducing a new and better order of things. Each suc- 
ceeding dispensation has been an advance upon the 
former. We have but to note the three that we have 
last considered — the Mosaic, the Christian, and the 
Millennial ages. For the whole world each was bet- 
ter than any that had preceded. But following the 
Postmillennial crisis the conditions will be as greatly 
improved as a new creation can make them. "And 
I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first 
heaven and the first earth are passed away" (Rev. 
21 :i). It is this nezv earth, with its improved and 
perfected conditions, that now claims our attention. 



THE POSTMILLENNIAL CRISIS 215 

The New Jerusalem 

The chief center of attraction upon the new earth 
will be a holy city, in contrast with the wicked cities 
of the former earth. In every respect it will be an 
ideal city. But it will not be modeled after any city 
ever built by man. It is a city from heaven. "And 
I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out 
of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned 
for her husband" (Rev. 21:2). The description of 
the city shows it to be entirely new, "having the glory 
of God." Its jeweled walls and foundations and 
streets, its unfailing and surpassing water supply, its 
marvelous lighting system, its perfect government, its 
pure worship, — all are absolutely new. 

The problem of lighting a great city no longer 
puzzles the modern man. Yet no modern system of 
illumination is perfect, and it is exceedingly expensive. 
But there will be no dark corners or streets in the 
New Jerusalem, and the light will be free to all. 
"And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the 
moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did 
lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb" (Rev. 
21:23). L,et the sun cool down and become a mere 
cinder, as some scientists claim. It would not affect 
the illumination of the City of God. Neither natural 
nor artificial light will be needed there, "for the Lord 
God shall give them light" (22:5). "And there 
shall be night no more." Illuminated by the presence 
of God, it will also partake of the glory of God. The 
vision of Christ granted to Paul upon the Damascus 



216 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

road was above the brightness of the noonday sun. 
Yet the light of that city will not be blinding to 
those who dwell therein, but only beautiful and 
glorious. 

"And he showed me a river of water of life, bright 
as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and 
of the Lamb" (22:1). What a water supply for a 
city! Pure, sparkling, running water. No paradise 
complete without a river. The source of the river 
that John saw was the throne of God. It was "a 
river of the water of life," and upon its banks grew 
the Tree of Life. The fruit of the Tree of Life was 
forbidden to Adam and Eve after they had sinned. 
But in the new earth none will be denied access to 
either the Water of Life or the Tree of Life in that 
city whose gates are open both day and night. 

No temple will be in the New Jerusalem, "for the 
Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple 
thereof" (21:22). No longer the worship of an in- 
visible God, for "they shall see his face." Direct 
worship, with none to molest nor forbid, such as 
angels and archangels around the throne in heaven 
now enjoy. 

The New Jerusalem will be a bridal city, wherein 
shall be the throne of God and the Lamb, the ap- 
pointed seat of government for the new earth. If the 
description of the city is strongly Jewish, nevertheless 
"the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof: and 
the kings of the earth bring their glory into it" 
(21:24). There will be no uprising against the city 



THE POSTMILLENNIAL CRISIS 2 1 7 

that comes down out of heaven from God, hence no 
need of future judgments upon the nations. The 
leaves of the Tree of Life will be for the continual 
healing, or health, of the nations. Here is not Para- 
dise restored, but the entire earth a Paradise; from 
which the former curse is not simply removed, but 
which is never again to be cursed. "And there shall 
be no more anything accursed" (margin). 

The People of the New Earth 

No census of the new earth can yet be taken. But 
the "tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall 
dwell with them, and they shall be his people" (21 13). 
All of the overcomers will be there, for "he that over- 
cometh shall inherit these things" (v. 7). All who 
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be there 
(21:27). Christ's servants will be there: "And his 
servants shall serve him; and they shall see his face; 
and his name shall be on their foreheads" (22:3, 4). 
They will have received the kingdom that can not be 
shaken. 

Their bliss will be without alloy. It is described in 
terms of negation, and in contrast with the miseries 
of our present world. From that new earth will be 
banished all of the ills caused by the entrance of sin 
into the old world. Never again anything to occasion 
the shame and the pain and the griefs of the present. 

"And death shall be no more." The chief cause 
of sorrow. No home untouched. No circle unbroken. 
The present earth is one vast cemetery. Hourly the 



218 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

hearse passes by. Weeping and wailing. At every 
season. Under all circumstances. Now gradually and 
stealthily approaching, now coming suddenly and un- 
expectedly. Now singly, now overwhelming multi- 
tudes. "No more." At the close of the Millennium, 
death was destroyed in the Lake of Fire. "And 
death shall be no more." No more weeping for loved 
ones ruthlessly taken from us. Nothing but life, life ! 

"Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor 
pain, any more." All occasion for mourning and cry- 
ing will be removed. Surcease from sorrow. Griefs 
and heartaches gone forever. No secret pangs of 
remorse. No smothered sobs. No outcry of pain. 
No ills, no aches, no tortures. No suffering of any 
kind. "Any more." The language of the seer is ex- 
haustive. There will be absolutely nothing to mar 
the bliss or blight the happiness of the people of the 
new earth. "And he that sitteth on the throne said, 
Behold, I make all things new" (21 15). 

But the glorified descriptions of the new earth as 
given by the inspired seer can not be improved upon. 
Every attempt even to enlarge upon them ends in con- 
scious failure. The above weak effort to do so is 
justified only by the hope that by dwelling upon some 
of the outstanding features we may realize anew the 
blessed conditions that are to follow the Postmillen- 
nial crisis. That age, or those ages, will be the acme 
of all that have gone before. And just as the Mil- 
lennium will justify the execution of God's wrath 
against Satan and his angels and against unrepentant 



THE POSTMILLENNI AL CRISIS 2 1 9 

men, so the glorified new earth will amply justify the 
destruction of Satan and his hosts through the judg- 
ment of the Great White Throne. 

God's Methods Justified by His Purposes 

God takes a far view of things. They who criticise 
His methods do not understand His purposes. In 
order to establish a world from which sin is to be 
entirely and forever eliminated, the hideousness and 
awfulness of sin must be so shown that men will never 
desire nor allow its repetition. This is why these 
epochal crises, with their extreme judgments, are 
necessary. And the study of them is thus of practical 
concern to us, especially since we now may be facing 
another one. 

Throughout the ages one Divine all-inclusive pur- 
pose runs — "the restoration of all things, whereof God 
spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that have 
been from of old." Not only must sin be atoned for, 
but sin itself and all its evils must be utterly blotted 
out of existence. Therefore through millenniums of 
grace and divine forbearance, through repeated test- 
ings and siftings, through occasional but loving chas- 
tisements, through harsh and punitive judgments, God 
ever has had the one end in view, namely, the estab- 
lishment of "the new heavens and a new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness." When this consummation of 
human history is accomplished God's eternal wisdom 
and love will shine forth in all the effulgence of His 
own splendor. 



220 WHEN GOD COMES DOWN TO EARTH 

From the vantage ground of the city that hath 
foundations, whose builder and maker is God, we shall 
look back over the varied millenniums of human his- 
tory in connection with the former earth and the old 
regime and with shouts of rejoicing worship God and 
the Lamb who sit upon the throne. 



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